When the democrats were trying to hoodwink the electorate into putting them into power back in 2006, one of their standard complaints was that the Republicans kept using the rules to keep the Democrats from winning votes on their proposals.
The most famous of those complaints was when the Republicans kept a vote open for 3 hours to convince enough of their party to vote for the Medicare Prescription Drug program (a vote I wish we had lost -- funny that the democrats complain about that one).
Well, the Democrats have found a better way to make sure the Republicans don't win votes -- don't ever allow them to vote.
The Democrats have just shut down for "summer vacation" (I presume the Senate is wasting money pretending to be open just so more important executive appointments go unfilled). They haven't passed a budget, they haven't passed a single appropriations bill, they have essentially accomplished nothing.
One major reason is that all of those votes would require allowing the Republicans to have a vote on oil drilling. Not that it would cause them to win the vote, just that Republicans would make the democrats DO a vote.
And the Democrats seem to know that, if a vote was held, they would lose -- or if they managed to force their members to vote against it, those votes would lose them elections.
So the Democrats cancel committee markups, bring every bill to the house floor under a "suspension of rules" which requires 2/3rds majority but doesn't allow amendments. And in their latest move, they simply adjourned in the middle of the energy debate rather than allow a vote on oil drilling.
In the Senate, they similarly are blocking any vote. How are they doing this?
Well, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have assumed the role of dictators, in a way the Republican leadership never came close to trying. Pelosi simply uses her power as leader to prevent votes. Reid similarly uses the senate calendar and the 1-man-veto of the senate to keep anything the Republicans want off the floor.
They can do this because the media is, by and large, ignoring the destruction of democracy which is the hallmark of the Democratic "new tone". In fact, typical liberal media will actually blame Republicans for wanting to have votes instead of "going along" with the democrats.
In a typical example, the republicans were blamed for a bill failing to pass when it couldn't get the 2/3rds vote it needed. Note that it was a bill that many Republicans would have supported if they simply were allowed to offer some amendments for a vote (many which would have passed and made the bill palatable).
We aren't talking about "poison pill" amendments -- those used by the Democrats, who tried to get amendments put on bills that the Democrats still had no intention of voting on, just to strip enough Republican support to kill the bill. We are talking about good-faith efforts by Republicans to address real problems with the bills, most of which aren't going through committee (where they might be modified by republican measures), and are being written by Pelosi's staff or other staff members instead. We are talking about amendments that would easily pass.
A typical example is the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Bill (LIHEAP). Judd Gregg (R) is a co-sponsor of the bill. But the Democrats attacked him for "voting against" his bill. The Union-Leader explains it best in their article "
The LIHEAP lie: Harry Reid's Slick Trick":
On Tuesday, Republicans voted with Democrats to open debate on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act. To avoid a vote on offshore drilling, Reid refused to allow any amendments to the bill. Republicans, holding out for amendments, offered to allow a vote on the LIHEAP bill if Reid allowed amendments to the speculation bill. Reid said no.
Then on Saturday, Reid tried to call a vote on the LIHEAP bill without allowing amendments to it, either. Had the Senate approved that procedural move, every attempt to address high oil and gas prices would have been removed from consideration indefinitely. The bill addressing those issues would be off the floor, and only Reid could bring it back.
Gregg voted with most other Republicans against bumping the LIHEAP bill ahead of the speculation bill.
The LIHEAP bill could have passed easily if Reid wanted it to, but instead he just wanted to play tricks to make it look like it was the Republicans, rather than his own fascist leadership policy, that was making a mockery of the Senate processes:
The Senate schedule reveals the truth. The LIHEAP bill was introduced on June 24. The speculation bill was introduced on July 15. If the LIHEAP bill is so urgently needed, as Democrats claim, why did Reid wait more than a month to schedule it for a vote? And why did he schedule the speculation bill -- introduced 21 days later -- for a vote before it?
Clearly, Reid timed these votes for political effect. It was a slick trick to make Republicans appear opposed to LIHEAP, and The New York Times, among others, fell for it. On Monday, The New York Times' editorial board asked, "What's the matter with New Hampshire?"
Of course the New York Times "fell for it", although I think they knew EXACTLY what happened and just lied to their readers to help the Democrats (probably why they are losing money and have to lay off people).
Anyway, that is just one example of how Reid and Pelosi have suspended democracy. Pelosi explains that she won't allow any votes on drilling because she is trying to save the planet. Apparently she thinks that nobody else in the house, Democrat OR Republican, can be trusted to vote correctly.
Pelosi won't take calls or e-mails from anybody who doesn't live in her district. But she has taken away the rights of OUR representatives to vote. If she is going to run a one-vote House, she should at least let us all communicate to our "supreme leader" to express our dissatisfaction with how she is voting for all of us.
Of course, she could not get away with this if the rest of the Democrats in the house didn't let her. So for those of you in the 8th district, you can thank Jim Moran for allowing Pelosi to steal your representation. He'd rather support Pelosi than represent you by voting for your interests.
And those in the 11th district -- don't expect Connally to be any different. If we want to actually have a voice in how the government operates, we need to elect Keith Fimian.
