I've seen a lot of comments today about how we should not exclude the Republicans from working on legislation in the House. I'd have thought after the last 12 years we all would finally have learned something: the Republican party is untrustworthy and even if you try to work with them, they will still stab you in the back. The latest MSM complaint is that Nancy Pelosi is being mean and partisan by not letting the Republicans amend their 100 Hours Program, as if now the Republicans have become the victims the Democrats once were. Huh? Last time I checked, the Senate, where the Republicans have to give 9 votes for anything to get an up or down vote, will have to also approve the legislation. And then the bill has to go to the Republican president for his signature. So presumably, any Republican suggestions will be heard in the Senate and from the White House.
I don't know of any time in history when the House minority has ever been relevant in terms of writing legislation. The House rules give the majority practically absolute power, so nothing even gets a vote without the approval of the House leadership. But we're not a parliamentary system and just because the House passes something does not mean it will become law. The minority has much more influence in the Senate and cannot be completely excluded, unless the majority has over 60 seats, which has not happened in a long time. And then anything passed by Congress has to go to the President. When the President vetoes something, it is almost impossible to override it, so the Congress must negotiate legislation with the White House.
Unfortunately, the 100 Hours Agenda will not immediately become law when passed by the House. It will go to the Senate, where Republicans can propose any modifications they would like and get them voted on and if they don't like the final product, they can filibuster. In fact, they could even lose 8 of their own senators and still hold a filibuster. And if the 100 Hours Agenda passes the Senate, it still has to be signed into law by the president. If Bush does not like it, he can veto it. And then, they can even let 15 of their senators vote to override and 56 of their representatives vote to override and still uphold the veto. So before anything becomes law, Senate Republicans and the White House must sign off. So people, please, stop complaining about Democrats excluding Republicans. It's a complete misrepresentation of the situation.
And lastly, let me offer a prediction: if the Democrats in the House do allow the Republicans to introduce amendments, they will not use the opportunity to improve the legislation, but instead to force votes on hot button issues and divide the Democratic majority. Abortion, gay marriage, flag burning, etc. They will attach poison pills to Democratic bills in order to destroy any chance of passage (Blunt has even confirmed this). Then, when the Democrats take away the privilege of introducing Republican amendments, the Republicans will cry bloody murder. They'll say Democrats are abusing their power and the MSM will solemnly opine that the Democrats have already become worse than the previous Republican majority. And no matter how much we do include the Republicans, they will never be satisfied that it is enough. Therefore, we should only allow limited participation by House Republicans and for the most part, shut them out. If moderate Republicans want to introduce something that could improve legislation, we should allow a vote on their proposal. But not if some crazy right-winger decides to introduce an amendment banning gay marriage. The remaining House Republicans are the most radical, reactionary, and mean-spirited of their old majority. They still have the take-no-prisoners approach of their old days in the majority and will view any conciliatory moves as a sign of weakness and use them to try to divide the Democratic party. It's going to be hard enough to get anything passed with McConnell determined to sabotage our legislation and Bush sitting in the White House with no incentive to compromise with us. The last thing we need is to allow John Boehner and Roy Blunt to introduce amendments for the sole purpose of dividing Democrats and killing our legislation. For six years, the only point of view heard in any branch of the federal government has been the Republican view. Little surprise that for them, it is too much for the Democrats to have undisputed control of only one-half of one branch of the federal government.