Welcome to Slate.com readers. 

I read this story with great interest today.

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.

Isn’t that nice and inclusive?  How bipartisian and cooperative.

Let’s flashback just a bit…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nov. 10, 2006:

“Election’s over. The only way to move forward is with bipartisanship and openness and to get some results. And we’ve made a commitment — the four [Bush, Durbin, and &?] of us here today — that that’s what we’re going to do.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nov. 9, 2006:

“Democrats are ready to lead, prepared to govern and absolutely willing to work in a bipartisan way.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, November 8, 2006:

“The American people voted for a New Direction to restore civility and bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. Democrats promise to work together in a bipartisan way for all Americans.”

“We will work with Republicans in Congress and the Administration in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship.”

Sounds awfully different from the more recent actions and intentions:

But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders.

Now, had the Democrats not made those previous statements, I doubt anyone would care.  It is not as if the Republican controlled congress did not pull some dirty politics on the Democrats.  But like all their representations about sweeping out the culture of corruption, they have been shown to have lied through their teeth, and their true intentions are clear.

A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.

The episode illustrates the dilemma facing the new party in power. The Democrats must demonstrate that they can break legislative gridlock and govern after 12 years in the minority, while honoring their pledge to make the 110th Congress a civil era in which Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the nation’s problems.

I don’t see how you can with a start like this.  In effect they are telling the Republican to shut up and sit down, they are going to force their agenda down their throats, and then maybe later if they behave, they can play government too.

The funny thing is they cannot keep their own stories straight:

Dems Eager to Put Stamp on New Congress

Democrats savoring a return from political wilderness are ready to move quickly this week to take the levers of power in a Congress that has been run by Republicans the last 12 years.

"Democrats are prepared to govern and ready to lead," said Pelosi, a Californian.

According to this version, they have a lofty agenda:

On the first day back, Democrats plan to change House rules on what members can accept from lobbyists. On the second day they’ll vote on other rules changes requiring that new spending or tax cuts be paid for and that pet projects tucked into larger bills be publicly disclosed.

Pelosi, like her GOP colleagues a dozen years ago, is also promising a more benevolent majority, saying the new House rules will state plainly that the minority will get a chance to offer amendments, read legislation before it gets voted on and participate in House-Senate negotiations. She is working with new minority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, on the idea of setting up an independent panel to investigate ethics issues.

So what about the 100 hour blitz as mentioned previously?  Not a word.

The reality of the situation is not lost on Republicans, and they are quick top point out the hypocrisy:

House GOP: Don’t Hurt Us — Please

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.

How nice to once again see Pelosi showing her true colors.  I love seeing her own words come back at her.

Of course, it bears repeating that in many ways the republicans who have ruled the roost for so long brought this upon themselves.  They ignored this idea when she proposed it, and did step on the heads of the democrats many times.

But if the democrats really had bipartisan cooperation as a clear honest agenda, as they campaigned, then this would not be an issue would it?   That said, it is obvious that their promises were more lip service to values and ideals, and  I don’t expect her to be any more friendly to the idea of true bipartisanship then they were.

Clearly the primary issue in congress will be paybacks.  As usual though, the people willbear the burden of the pain.

I am not suggesting all her proposals and are bad.  Congress is desperately overdue for ethics reform, and some of her 100 hour proposals are also worthy of consideratoin.  Some are partisan slaps in the face however.

And to do it by launching the session so openly unethical seems a bit hypocritical. 

Makes me wonder if we may finally see Bush warm up his veto.

Pelosi having weathered two disappointments in the Murtha and Hastings appintments faces a fresh scandal with Conyer’s appointment to the House Judiciary Committee.

As this article notes, her ability to sweep out corruption is not as easy as sh thought.

Editorial: Is Pelosi serious about cleaning up the House?

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will make history this week when she becomes the first woman elected as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. What also will likely be seen this week in her handling of the Conyers scandal is whether or not Pelosi means what she says about cleaning up the ethics mess left by the Republicans (and not a few prominent Democrats as well).

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is scheduled to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, but only because he agreed when Pelosi previously made clear that she intended him not to waste time on impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

I love the smell of backroom deals. 

But now we learn that Conyers has his own problems with obeying the law.

There is so much wrong with the Conyers situation that Pelosi shouldn’t have to think twice about nixing Conyers’ chairmanship. Let us look at how the Conyers scandal epitomizes the ethics mess in the House:

First, releasing its report late on Friday before the New Year’s holiday weekend made it clear that the House “Ethics” Committee intended to minimize public understanding of the Conyers scandal. This is classic Washington Establishment manipulation of the news cycle to insulate itself against public accountability.

Second, Conyers responded to the “Ethics” committee by “accepting responsibility” for a “lack of clarity” in asking aides to work on his re-election campaign while on the official payroll instead of going on a campaign staff, as the law requires, and to do personal chores for him. The allegations came from senior staff members, including a former chief of staff, not interns or other short-term aides who might have questionable motives.

Third, the “Ethics” committee report also concerned a second investigation of Conyers from 2003 on allegations that his aides also worked on the Carol Mosely-Braun presidential campaign and JoAnn Watson’s Detroit City Council race. Would Conyers have applied the same slipshod legal standards to his Bush impeachment effort?

Fourth, the Conyers scandal shows it’s still business as usual for the “Ethics” committee. Pelosi should demand that Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the committee leaders who signed off on the Conyers report, be removed permanently from the panel and barred from leadership of other House panels.

Finally, Pelosi should heed former White House chief of staff and ex-congressman Leon Panetta, who said “you can attack one party for having a lack of ethics, but if any of your own members have problems, it dulls the message with the American people, they begin to put everybody in the same box.”

No kidding. 

In other words, whenever one member of the House has an ethics problem, it damages the credibility of all members of the House, including most especially its most visible leader, the speaker.

Pelosi should withdraw Conyers’ appointment as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee because he is unfit for the position and because the ethics mess simply cannot be cleaned up with such an individual leading the House committee most directly concerned with upholding the majesty of the law.

Bravo. 

As I noted before, this is going to be a fun year.  The democrat’s are turning this into one heck of a good show.

Note to all politicans:  Here is a quote I ran accross today:

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. 
~Charles Krauthammer

Also at Captain Ed, Sister Toldjah, Atlas Shrugs, Texas Rainmaker, AJ Strata, Rhymes With Right, GOP Bloggers, Gateway Pundit

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