AP House GOP shut out despite promises

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070127/ap_on_go_co/congress_minority_rights;_ylt=Ak.UZ9l98quD0XABfW2248gGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

House GOP shut out despite promises

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - It was 2004 and Democrats were into their 10th year as the minority party in the House when they proposed a bill of rights to ensure their participation in the democratic process.


The GOP ignored them.

Now Republicans, newly demoted to the minority, say they are the ones suffering abuse despite repeated Democratic promises that theirs would be a more open, democratic and inclusive rule.

"It seems," said Republican leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, "over the last three weeks that the more we reach out and offer our hand of bipartisanship, (the more) it is slapped away."

Democrats deny they are seeking retribution for 12 years of perceived slights. They also say they are not reneging on the assertion, in their bill of rights, that bills should go through a process of open hearings and full debate where the minority party can offer amendments.

[ohio2007]

1. business as usual,nothing to see here nt

[More Than A Feeling]

2. Don't know why they are bringing up the minority bill of rights

The bill didn't pass, they aren't bound by it. So why even ask if they are "reneging", unless you just want to cast Dems in an unfavorable light?

[aquart]

4. And WHY didn't it pass? Oh, right.

[rodeodance]

9. ohhhhhhhhhh. right.

[rodeodance]

10. Reps spent most of their talking time on the House floor WHINNING

about this issue the last few weeks.

I just had to turn it off.

[aquart]

3. Awwwwwwwwww.

We have a saying in my old neighborhood: "My heart bleeds borscht for you."

[rodeodance]

5. I feel your pain," said Hoyer with a smile. te he. Its rub it in a bit time.

Earlier hopes of a new era of civility quickly dissipated with the pensions bill. Republicans claimed that, without their knowledge, Democrats made last-minute changes that were written on a napkin.

"Members of the current minority sat here for two weeks grinding their teeth while they watched things come to the floor without having gone to committee, without prior debate and discussion," said the former chairman of the House Administration Committee, Rep. Vernon Ehlers (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich. "And this is the crowning insult."

"It is tough to be in the minority, isn't it? I feel your pain," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md.,

He said that with a smile to Republicans while pointing out that the late changes came as a request from Boehner, the House GOP leader.

[Little Wing]

6. I'd rather see him punched in the face over having his hand slapped

[skipos]

7. "the more we reach out and offer our hand of bipartisanship"

THAT is freaking funny!

[tanyev]

8. First of all, I don't believe it will ever be so ruthlessly executed by Dems

as it was by Tom DeLay and company.

Second of all, the Republicans came up with all kinds of creative ways in the last 12 years to make sure they got their way. Now they want to complain when somebody uses those same tricks against them? Cry me a river. :P

[PSPS]

11. In GOP-speak: "bipartisanship" = "my way or the highway"

This has been the hallmark of the bush regime. So far, the republicans' idea of "reach out and offer our hand of bipartisanship" is code for "we'll get everything we want whether you like it or not."

I don't care if the GOP is "shut out" of opportunities to load poison-pill amendments to needed legislation. Most of them should be in jail anyway. They have nothing positive to contribute, so they should be marginalized and ignored whenever possible.

[aggiesal]

12. 3 Weeks .vs. 12 Years. ...

"Whine me a river!"

[journalist3072]

13. Some please correct me if I am wrong on this, but...

From what I can tell, the new GOP minority is still being allowed to do things like offer amendments. Didn't the minimum wage bill get stalled in the Senate b/c the GOP offered an amendment for those tax breaks for businesses?

If my memory serves me correctly one of the ways the GOP majority in Congress excluded the Democrats for 12 years, is by stopping debate on legislation and not allowing the Dems to offer amendments, etc.

Seems to me like they are crying about nothing.

[napi21]

23. You're right on the Senate, but the Pubs are whining about the House.

For the first 100 hours, there were NO amendments allowed, and they just don't know how to handle that!

However, if you take a look at what happened in the Senate on the min wage bill, you can seer why. The Senate Pubsfiled almost 100 amendments! There couldn't possible any reason, other than to delay the bill, that they would have done that!

I know, as I was watching on cspan, I kept yelling, STOP THESE IDIOTS FROM FILING AMENDMENTS!!!!

As far as Boehner goes, "You DO know that old saying...PAY BACK IS A ...."

[bigluckyfeet]

24. Maybe the Dems

Really wanted the bill stopped.

[hashibabba]

14. My heart bleeds for them...

"over the last three weeks that the more we reach out and offer our hand of bipartisanship, (the more) it is slapped away."

Bipartanship to them means that things must ALWAYS go their way.

[Bonhomme Richard]

15. F**K the republics and F**K bi-partisanship now that............

the shoe is on the other foot.
Give em a taste of their own medicine and let them whine.

"You do nothing by halves either to enemies or friends." Lord Minto to Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson

[Old and In the Way]

16. This country can't afford bi-partisanship with the Republican Syndicate

We still have a very tenuous toehold on taking back our government...now is not the time to provide cover for these pricks. Check back in 10 years from now.

[villager]

17. whiny bullying dweebs. Textbook assholes, all of them.

n/t

[soothsayer]

18. bwa ha ha ha! We'll reach out once you guys grow up.

[gratuitous]

19. Bummer Boehner

Must suck to be you, huh? By the way, what are you doing still out of prison?

[Trajan]

20. FUCK them .....

We have some work to do in congress to REVERSE their malfeasant misgovernance ....

They are bound to get in the way of 'Nation RE-building' .... Anyways, what 'new ideas' do they bring other than the FUCKED UP ideas that brought us to where we are today ? ...

I would like FAUX news to ask the GOP what 'new ideas' they have ..... Oh yeah ; that's ONLY a question for Democrats ....

FUCK them ..... Get in the back of the BUS !

[Seldona]

21. What about our MANDATE?

*Bush certainly claimed his after '04. Dems should be out there using the same rhetoric they used. They had TWELVE YEARS to put their agenda first. Now it's our turn.

[samsingh]

22. the GOP should get over it and stop the crying

[Warren Stupidity]

25. Screw 'em

They had 12 years to change their ways and they never did. In fact the last six years were the worst. Maybe after four years or so of probation they can be allowed back into a real bipartisan process.

[Zorra]

26. Children should not be allowed to interrupt adults when the adults

are working on important matters. Especially matters like saving democracy, the country, and the planet.

[Amused Musings]

27. I am currently rubbing my index finger and thumb

playing the world's tiniest violin

[jamesinca]

28. I love this line

"It is tough to be in the minority, isn't it? I feel your pain," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md.,

He said that with a smile to Republicans while pointing out that the late changes came as a request from Boehner, the House GOP leader.

Asked at a news conference about the napkin, Hoyer said, "It was on some piece of paper, the consistency of which I do not know."

[Raine]

29. GOP deserves as much

bi-partionship as they gave to the Democrats...NONE!