Congressional Thugs

To my absolute astonishment, a member of the mainstream press has actually point out what the rest of us knew: the Republicans simply can't be trusted to act in good faith anymore. E.J. Dionne:

There is a name for those who continue to sit at a gambling table even after they learn that the game is fixed. They are called fools.

Now that President Bush has proposed Social Security benefit cuts through "progressive indexing," his critics are said to have an obligation to negotiate in good faith to achieve a solution. There are just two problems with that sentence: The words "good faith" and "solution."

Kevin Drum picked up on this and adds:

There are plenty of other examples of this kind of thuggish Republican behavior. Keeping floor votes open for hours of arm twisting and vote buying, for example, instead of the usual 15 minutes. Preventing Democrats from so much as offering amendments to Republican legislation. Increased use of "emergency" late night meetings. Keeping the text of legislation secret until mere hours before scheduled votes. Squeezing the time for debate by allowing no more than one or two days a week for work on real legislation. Slashing the number of bills considered under open rules. And, of course, threatening the "nuclear option" to cut off judicial filibusters.

It's time that the Democrats, led by Harry Reid, included this in the narrative of How the Republicans Abuse Power. Drum's litany above can be turned into a good, short, understandable sound bite.