Reply #27: You are absolutely correct...

[Sir Jeffrey]

The majority party in the Congress, operating through the Speaker of the House, gets to decide what bills make it to the floor for a vote. That is why the Speaker is such a powerful position. Any Democrat in the Congress claiming that they "don't have the votes" is lying to cover their asses. If the Speaker decides to kill a bill in committee, the only way they can get it out of committee and to the floor for a vote is through a discharge petition, and those are rare (not to mention a pain in the ass to finish).

During the last several sessions, Denny Hastert used to rely on the "majority of the majority" rule...in other words, if the Speaker determined that anything less than a simple majority of Republicans supported a particular bill, he just wouldn't call the bill. That is what he did with the Campaign Finance bill a few years back. Hastert refused to call the bill before the House but Shays started the petition and got it to the floor for a vote. Boy it would be nice to have that kind of Speaker on our side. Too bad. In the interest of bi-partisanship, we get sold out time and again to the Republicans.

I think this is an overlooked part of the war funding bill debate. The Speaker held ALL of the power and folded for political reasons, claiming we didn't have the votes. It was a lie.

I understand why they did it, but I disagree with the reasoning. Maybe if this was 2004, but this is 2007 and things are worse. When the overwhelming majority want us out of Iraq within the next 6 months to 1 year, you may win a few moderates/independents for passing another blank check for Bush but you demoralize and alienate your base.