Cry me a river

It's Schadenfreude time!

Turning the Wayback Machine to June of 2004 we might find a story such as this one, from the Washington Post:

Pelosi Seeks House Minority 'Bill of Rights'
Hastert Dismisses Democrats' Complaint, Saying GOP Record Is Better Than Foes'

House Democrats' anger at heavy-handed Republican tactics reached a new level yesterday, with the chamber's top Democrat asking the House speaker to embrace a "Bill of Rights" for the minority, regardless which party it is.

In keeping with the general atmosphere of the House these days, aides to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said he will not respond to the two-page proposal from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis, as one of the Holy Roman Emperors (who were really neither holy, Roman, nor emperors in any meaningful sense of the word) used to say, "The times change, and we change along with them." Fast-forward to the present, where we find some interesting reading from Representatives Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and Tom Price (R-Ga.):

Roughly 140 million Americans will be represented in the House by a Republican during the 110th Congress. Our fundamental duty is to guarantee that they receive just and meaningful representation in Congress. This can only be accomplished with bipartisan administration of the House, respect for customary and regular order in considering legislation, and establishing that the right of the minority party will be respected.

[edit]

With that in mind, please join us in co-sponsoring the Minority Bill of Rights, which we plan to introduce next week. The Bill of Rights is identical – in both letter and spirit – to a 2004 proposal made by then-Minority Leader Pelosi ....

To quote from Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards' play 1776, "Ha! I wish you the same luck [we] had with it!"

In all seriousness, I find myself of two minds on this issue. On the less-noble side of the ledger, my gut tells me we should slowly shiv the Republicans, allowing them to wallow to their hearts' desire in the freakish misery and impotence they inflicted upon us these last 12 years. Let them get a thoroughgoing taste of their own medicine and see how much they like the taste of it, having fed it to us for so long. I must confess, such a course would provide no end of visceral satisfaction to me--and doubtless to millions of my fellow Democrats, liberals, and progressives, all of whom have suffered at great and painful length under the GOP Congress since 1994.

But the better angels of my nature whisper in my ear that we hated it like anything when the Republicans did it to us, and cried foul long and loud, with no one to hear us. We were right when we claimed that the Republicans' actions in shutting us out of the political process altogether was contrary to both the letter of the law and the spirit of our system of government. For us to perpetuate that evil, even to give it back to those who gave it to us first, would be a betrayal of the very principles we claim to stand for.

I can't unequivocally support either position completely, so I think the only rational course of action is to split the difference and do a little of both. There's a pragmatic argument to be made for such a course as well. Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have announced a very ambitious plan for the first 100 hours of the new Congress. Virtually every item on that agenda is one that the Republicans have blocked or otherwise kept under wraps for years. Seen in that light, it makes a certain amount of sense for the new Democratic majority in Congress to run the place under the old rules at least until their 100 Hours Agenda is enacted. After that we can consider allowing the Republicans to have a little real power back, at least on condition that they behave themselves in its exercise. If all they're going to do with the power we give them, however, is to balk, stall, obfuscate, and otherwise obstruct the conducting of the people's business, we should reserve to ourselves the right to revert to their "We're in the majority, so suck on it, losers!" rules.

I must say, I find it a shade too plausibly convenient to see the GOoPers talking about bipartisanship now. Presumably when they use that word now, they no longer mean "cajoling, bribing, or otherwise forcing a few members of the minority party to agree to do things our way," as they almost always did when they used that word during the time when they held the majority. And I sincerely hope that this little taste of what it's like to have to sit at the back of the bus will teach some of the Republicans in Congress a little humility, humility which they will both remember and pay heed to whenever they next find themselves in the majority.

At least as regards the three little GOoPers who wrote that begging letter to their Republican colleagues, it would seem that my hopes are to be in vain, at least if the paragraph I edited out of their letter above is any indication. Here's the elided section:

Unfortunately, as you are well aware, the Democrats' forty-year reign over the House was plagued by consistent, systematic efforts to usurp the rights and privileges of the Republican minority. Despite repeated statements to the contrary, we can only expect that the Democrats will return to their old abusive ways as they assume control in the coming Congress. That is, of course, unless we hold them accountable for their past promises.

Sweet. Nothing is ever the Republicans' fault. It's always those pesky Democrats misbehavin' and makin' a ruckus. Uh-huh. We're not the ones who wrote the minority out of the legislative process completely. We're not the ones who tried--and very nearly succeeded--to make the Ethics Committee a hollow rubber-stamp for the majority leadership. We're not the ones who regularly and illegitimately extended the voting period to ensure passage of a controversial bill. All of those black spots stain the Republicans' escutcheon, and theirs alone, since they so graciously acted to muscle the Democrats out of their way.

Now I find myself getting angry again, and thinking it would be a better idea to do unto the Republicans as they did unto us--and keep doing it. I hope we can find it within ourselves to rise above that urge, no matter how gratifying it might be. Though I hope we can reasonably give the GOP at least a small dose of its own medicine first. And equally, I hope the day on which the Republicans again ascend to majority status in Congress is a very long time in coming.

Another 40 years would be just about right.

Comments

[John]

I am encouraged to see the rising story of the first 100 hours coming into the spotlight. I’ve been posting regular analysis of these issues on my site during the congressional break. It is very important that America and the world see a sharp contrast between the Republican do-nothing congress and the new 110th Congress getting started tomorrow.