Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Incompetence

That's what Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated so far as Speaker Of The House. She is so frustrated with procedures not going her way that she is threatening to change the rules and outlaw the minority party's input in legislation altogether. From Drudge:

After losing a string of embarrassing votes on the House floor because of procedural maneuvering, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to change the current House Rules to completely shut down the floor to the minority.
The Democratic Leadership is threatening to change the current House Rules regarding the Republican right to the Motion to Recommit or the test of germaneness on the motion to recommit. This would be the first change to the germaneness rule since 1822.
In protest, the House Republicans are going to call procedural motions every half hour.

But it's the evil Republicans who should just shut up and go along with the the majority. Afterall they are a majority of elected officials. But that's not what Pelosi said when she was in the minority. She proposed a minority's bill of rights which would have granted more influence to the minority than she is complainging about today. From the Washington Post circa 2004:

Pelosi's document, which she vows to honor if Democrats regain the majority, says: "Too often, incivility and the heavy hand of the majority" have silenced Democrats and choked off "thoughtful debate." She called on the majority to let the minority offer meaningful amendments and substitutes to important bills; to limit roll-call votes to the normal 15 minutes rather than keeping them open to round up needed votes; and to let all appointees to House-Senate conference committees participate in meetings and decisions.

"When we are shut out, they are shutting out the great diversity of America," Pelosi said in an interview. "We want a return to civility; we want to set a higher standard."

You can't have it both ways. Unlesss you are a Democrat, in which case "reasonable debate" equals "outlawing the opposition"