Congressional Process Reform

Here is a great example of a story that Republicans should be using to regain their credibility, instead of simply bashing Democrats.  The Republican Whip blog (of Eric Cantor) says Democrats are shutting the House GOP out of the process.

In a completely unprecedented fashion, House Democrats have used their power as the majority party to shut out floor amendments from the minority party on spending legislation. Right at the beginning of the debate, House Democrats decided to go to the Rules Committee, to report out a Structured Rule and shut the House GOP out of the process.

So, Republicans (who spent years in the majority strong-arming legislation, bending the rules and shutting out Democrats) are now upset that Democrats are abusing their power.  My sympathy is a bit limited.  However, Democrats spent those same years complaining about the Republican abuses of power, so "Republicans did stuff too!" isn't really an excuse.

This does offer a good excuse to review some Nancy Pelosi quotes from years past, though.

1. “Every person in America has a right to have his or her voice heard. No Member of Congress should be silenced on the floor…guaranteeing that the voices of all the people are heard.” - Nancy Pelosi, 2008
2. "House Republicans might have their doubts, but Minority Leader Pelosi says a Democratic majority next year would place a heavy emphasis on bipartisanship — and would offer the Republicans minority rights often denied Democrats now." - National Journal on Nancy Pelosi, 2006
3. "It's not about a defeat, it's about a decision. I certainly would not say that we can't bring things to the floor because we'll lose ... [Republicans] are afraid of ideas. That's why we can't have amendments, substitutes, and all the rest for the most part." - National Journal on Nancy Pelosi, 2006
4. "I'm a big believer in bipartisanship on so many issues. You can't address the entitlement issue, the healthcare issue, and do it in a partisan way. They are too big, they involve too many people, and they involve too much money, private and public money. You've got to do it in a way that has legitimacy." - Nancy Pelosi, 2006

Frankly, the solution is a much more granular, well-defined and transparent process that doesn't allow politicians to do the horse-trading and ad hoc deal-making that corrupts legislation so much.

At this point, both Congressional Republicans and Democrats are pretty unpopular, and the public trend is towards higher "independent" identification.  Forget bashing Democrats; Republicans need to sell the public on Republicans.   "Democrats suck" is not really a selling point for Republicans.

This issue is, again, a place where Republicans could build credibility and set themselves apart from Democrats by working with bipartisan outside groups to develop an objective, fair, accountable and rational process for legislation, abiding by it (to the extent possible) now, and making a public, written and enforceable commitment to adopt it once they regain the majority.

If Republicans are serious about both reforming the party and ensuring good governance, they could do that and do it now.  Campaign rhetoric about "fixing the problems" if they regain the majority are likely to be as empty as those from the Democrats were.