"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
Report by House Democrats Alleges GOP Abuse of Power

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 8, 2005; Page A13


Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other revolutionaries used accusations of
arrogant and heavy-handed tactics to stir a populist revolt against 40
years of Democratic domination of Congress before the GOP takeover of
1994.

Now, after 10 years of Republican control, House Democrats are making
strikingly similar charges against today's Republicans.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) plans to lash out at the
chamber's Republican leaders today with a report accusing them of abusing
their power through parliamentary tactics designed to suppress dissent.

The report contends that rules governing major legislation "severely
restrict or sometimes even totally block the minority's ability to debate
or amend bills." It charges that Republicans on the Rules Committee have
intentionally "used emergency meeting procedures and late-night meetings
. . . to discourage Members and the press from participating in the
legislative process."

Pelosi, a liberal who has few weapons besides rhetoric to use against the
conservatives who control Congress, described the forthcoming report as
documenting "devastating details of the profound abuse of power that
characterizes House Republicans after 10 years in the majority."

"While this Republican administration has spoken strongly about promoting
democracy around the world, the House Republican leadership is working
feverishly to undermine democracy here at home," she said in a statement
to be released with the report.

Pelosi said the leaders "ram bills through committees without full
discussion, permit few if any floor amendments, and if need be, hold open
floor votes until enough arms have been twisted to ensure passage." In
November 2003, the House leadership kept a roll call going for two hours
and 51 minutes -- more than double the previous record -- until they
could round up enough votes to pass President Bush's Medicare revision
and prescription drug bill.

Republicans replied that Democrats just want to slow down the process and
that the opposition has procedural guarantees that were routinely denied
to the GOP when it was in the minority. For instance, House Rules
Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) has a policy that when a bill
will not be available until after 10 p.m., a committee meeting is held
early the next morning rather than late that night, aides pointed out.

The 147-page report, by the Democratic staff of the House Rules
Committee, is called "Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative
Democracy" and is described on the cover as "A Congressional Report on
the Unprecedented Erosion of the Democratic Process in the 108th
Congress," which ended at noon on Jan. 3.

"In the 108th Congress, House Republicans became the most arrogant,
unethical and corrupt majority in modern Congressional history," the
report begins. "When they took control of the House after the 1994
elections, Republicans vowed they would be different than previous
Congresses."

The report goes on to say that "what sets the 108th Congress apart from
its predecessors is that stifling deliberation and quashing dissent in
the House of Representatives became the standard operating procedure."

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee,
said that the method by which Republicans run the House and their
procedures "are moral decisions."

"Over the past two years, the Republican leadership ignored House Rules
and the basic standards of legislative fairness and decency with an
impunity that is unprecedented in the history of the House of
Representatives," she said in a statement.

The report notes that Gingrich said during a January seminar at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars that the House
leadership's tight rein on House proceedings is an "enormous strategic
mistake."

The report calls for Republicans to "open up the process by allowing
debate and votes on more serious amendments" and give members at least
three days to read reports from conference committees.

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Cry me a river Pelosi...





You really truly are not in favor of our form of government, are you...

I'm opposed to governing through obstructionism. I think the filibuster
ought to be outlawed. The Constitiution provides all the necessary
safeguards so that the group in power doesn't have too much of it. Judicial
nominations ought to be confirmed with an up or down vote (50% +1). Changes
to the Constitution ought to remain at the 2/3 required majority.