With new Congress about to convene, Republicans issue letter already claiming to be victims

[ProSense]

House GOP: Don't Hurt Us -- Please

By Justin Rood - January 2, 2007, 11:48 AM

Republicans aren't yet an official minority in the House, but they're already beginning a campaign to portray themselves as victims of a heartless Democratic majority.

In a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated to fellow Republicans, three House GOPers are trying to push a "Minority Bill of Rights" -- based on a two-year-old proposal by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). You can read the letter here.



"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," write Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Tom Price (R-GA).

They don't mention their party's own strongarm tactics -- which is striking, given that since 2002 Cantor himself was a member of the House GOP leadership, which was known for ruthlessly engineering legislative victories. "(R)eveling in the power they have, are using techniques to jam bills through even when they don't have to . . . simply because they can," is how congressional expert Norman Ornstein characterized the GOP's screw-the-minority tactics from 1994 to the present, according to a 2004 Washington Post article.

more...

[flamin lib]

1. My heart bleeds yellow water. nt

[LynnTheDem]

2. ROTFL!!!

Rightwingnuts; stupidest MFers.

EVER.

[Cass]

3. Oh this is rich indeed. The first paragraph is all I read but its a real

doozy. Too bad they chose to ignore bipartisanship during their 12 year reign of terror as the majority party.

[lyonn]

11. Oh yea, the repubs were a generous group

Never allowed amendments to bills, resolutions; promoted an illegal war that is destroying our military (so some Dems allowed this bs due to so called patriotism); allowed an Imperial Presidency; piece by piece destruction of our Constitution and our right to habeas corpus; we know the routine.

Their complaints will no doubt backfire on them if the Dems are alert.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Let them whine

it shows how weak and ineffective they are.


We need strong leadership; We can't trust the security of our nation to a bunch of candy assed crybabies.

[cui bono]

7. and shows how little they really care about bipartisanship

or they wouldn't be pulling this crap. If they were mature adults who cared about the good of the country they would wait and see what happens. I have to take a closer look and see who actually signed this letter.

[Xipe Totec]

9. They could have voted for Pelosi's bill before Nov 2006

When they were the majority.

But Noooooo! :rofl:

Now, all of a sudden, they wake up to the importance of minority rights?

Give me a moment to try to fake surprise....

:wow:

[lyonn]

12. Good Point!! nt

[cui bono]

5. OMFG!!! Little babies... I'm hearing in my head the crying Sam Seder uses on his show. :)

[jobycom]

6. Judging by how much they did while in power

I think we have nothing to worry about from these grub anymore. Their whining isn't even effective.

[Double T]

8. What a bunch of sniveling pablum sucking whiners

[sinkingfeeling]

10. And exactly where was their "respect for customary and regular order in

considering legislation, and establishing the rights of the minority party will be respected"? Aren't they the ones who held open voting periods to bribe their members to voting their way? Aren't they the ones who denied conference rooms to the Democrats? Aren't they the ones who shut off microphones and walked out of committees with the gavel? Aren't they the ones who marked up bills without any Democratic House members present? Aren't they the ones who introduced legislation and insisted on votes before anybody could read the sh*t? Why should the Democrats not play by the rules that 'governed' the House for the last six years?

[lyonn]

14. You, Sinkingfeeling, have been paying attention, thank you

nt

[unpossibles]

15. exactly. The entire reason Pelosi drafted that in the first place

was a response to their typical behavior.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

31. Was the proposal of Pelosi's that they mention one that they accepted when in government?

Or is their support for it new? I haven't heard of it before.

That said, I think there's a case to be made for acceding to at least some of this, on the grounds that the Democrats will be back in opposition at some point.

[unpossibles]

32. it's the first I have heard of it too, which most likely means

that they ignored it.

[valerief]

13. Whatsa matteh? Their Contract On America didn't work? nt

[marions ghost]

16. pardon me while I

:puke:

oh yeah, NOW it's time to go back to being civilized ladies and gentlemen...

Minority Bill of Rights...put that on the back burner for awhile.

[Hawkeye-X]

25. Actually, I'd burn that thing

And make Republicans learn their lessons the HARD way.

[katsy]

17. wha wha wha boo hoo hoo

:rofl:

too funny.

[calzone]

18. Another GOP pre-emptive strike

All I've been hearing from republicans lately is the new shiny mantra that "we need to be bipartisan and not put petty bickering and vendettas above what's best for the country."
Dems were virtually shut out and given the bums rush on every single issue, accused of being terrorist-lovers, cowards and traitors, but now we need to act like good friends and get along.
Congress has the power of oversight, and it has the responsibility and duty to exercise it. OVERSIGHT. If ethics were savaged, corruption embraced, if the constitution was ignored and abused and investigations stonewalled and obstructed we need to deal with it. If private companies lost, misappropriated funds or overbilled the U.S. public treasury there's a responsibility to hold them accountable, and any government officials that facilitated them, no matter how high up the ladder it goes. The majority of Americans polled have supported this. In every poll.
And that oft repeated blurb about dems being in control of the house for 40 years...the Congress consists of the House of Reps & the Senate, and the Senate changed party hands regularly over that 40 years, as did the presidency. Republicans like to use this little tactic to give the impression that dems controlled the govt. for 40 years, till the '94 repub revolution (never thought I'd see those 2 words used together) and Newt's "contract on America".

[Pab Sungenis]

19. Did they give anyone 24 hours to read the PATRIOT Act?

Did they allow any substantial debate on it? Or the IWR? Any minority amendments?

How many Democratic bills did they allow onto the floor in the past four years?

[LittleClarkie]

20. They owe me for a new irony meter.

Oh, my head.

[jarab]

21. You ARE victims of an upset electorate; Get used to it! (nt)

...O...

[pdxmom]

22. I think this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. They

refused to even consider this when Pelosi brought it forward in 2004. Now, they suddenly find it absolutely necessary.

Can't wait to see the turn-around on domestic eavesdropping when a Democrat wins the WH.

[ProSense]

23. Then there is the Giuliani

mishap

[Tactical Progressive]

24. The biggest bullies are always the biggest cowards and the biggest whiners

Why is that?

[jazzjunkysue]

26. You just can't embarass these people. There is no low too low for them to

stoop. They'll always be willing to dredge the bottom of the pond longer and quicker than we will.

They are filth. Whiny filth.

[globalvillage]

27. 109th -The Worst Congress Ever

The Worst Congress Ever
How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts -- in five easy steps
MATT TAIBBI


The GOP's "take that, bitch" approach to governing has been taken to the greatest heights by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee is chaired by the legendary Republican monster James Sensenbrenner Jr., an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death. Last year, Sensenbrenner became apoplectic when Democrats who wanted to hold a hearing on the Patriot Act invoked a little-known rule that required him to let them have one.

"Naturally, he scheduled it for something like 9 a.m. on a Friday when Congress wasn't in session, hoping that no one would show," recalls a Democratic staffer who attended the hearing. "But we got a pretty good turnout anyway."

Sensenbrenner kept trying to gavel the hearing to a close, but Democrats again pointed to the rules, which said they had a certain amount of time to examine their witnesses. When they refused to stop the proceedings, the chairman did something unprecedented: He simply picked up his gavel and walked out.

"He was like a kid at the playground," the staffer says. And just in case anyone missed the point, Sensenbrenner shut off the lights and cut the microphones on his way out of the room.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12055360/cover_story_time_to_go_inside_the_worst_congress_ever/print

[struggle4progress]

28. Not long ago, they weren't too keen on Nancy's proposal and they

were telling us she was the bogeyman. Now they're sending out a letter advertising that they're supporting bogeyman Nancy's proposal. I guess some things must just get better with time ...

[undergroundpanther]

29. Every bully

when faced with taking responsibility for what the bully caused that harmed others in this case our nation,in every sense of the word, cries victim..when the bullies best Friend, the ol' plausible deni-ability bullshit has all but been played out..

Bullies are never victims when they are being called out to take their consequences for abuse of power.

I think the DEM congress should kick their proverbial teeth down their slimy liar throats and destroy the GOP utterly, make the GOP and"conservative"in the mind of all decent people be synonymous with tyranny corruption and cowardice because that's what conservatism IS and always was about ..For the Gop is the party of sociopath masking itself with hyper normalcy and a squeaky moral image it never had. Look if you peel back the rightwing noise and PR spin and look at what the"Conservatives" really stand for.. It's thier own elitism, the rich in the clique formed back in the 1800's or maybe earlier always getting something for nothing, labor exploitation,human exploitation, stealing,big business welfare, protecting the old boys network(white boy gang old money pirates, er.. umm"merchants") and killing off minorities and poor people bashing gays or whatever scapegoat these bullies envy and fear...and lastly war profiteering sexual and lots of child abuser, spiritual abuser, abusers of power coddling and excusing the most depraved of behaviors, the GOP defends and is the party of sociopaths, narcissists,authoritarians and the gutless enablers of the GOP, the brownnosers, bully buddies, cohorts and sycophants and stepford wives and christian nazis with no inner locus of control who are terrified to live their lives without these kinds of assholes telling them what to do, who to be, and 'leading' them..The dynamics are there, when is america going to stop playing this stupid abusive dysfunctional game?
Why is the abnbbuses of power that are hidden from the public in the abusive family dynamic being replayed in the white house and the abuse in some american homes replayed in our national policies? Time to leave the asshole behind, people, and if the GOP parasites whine victim know it is a lie and kick them down like the tyrants they are they whine now only because they cannot dominate.Not being able to dominate that is what sociopaths loathe. And being unable to use, manipulate and abuse thier to access power is what they NEED.Cut them off.Cut them down, get thier scummy asses out of town.

[Jade Fox]

30. Right, bullies are NEVER victims.....

They can't have it both ways, crying victim when their bully tactics stop working.

All the Neocon bullies causing such a mess in our country must be called on their victim posturing every time they try it. They attempt to use the compassion of Democrats and Progressives against us by playing the victim. Sadly, they often succeed. And by playing the victim they inflame the whiny quality of so many of their supporters.