Someone get Judd Gregg the smelling salts, because he has come down with a case of the vapors:
“That would be the Chicago approach to governing: Strong-arm it through. You’re talking about the exact opposite of bipartisan. You’re talking about running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them in the Chicago River.”
I think he meant cement shoes, but I’m not going to nitpick- that idea has a great deal of appeal to me right about now. At any rate, this is a Republican we are talking about, so you know where this is going. Judd Gregg was for reconciliation before he was against it.
Meanwhile, no discussion of the process by which Republicans governed when they were in charge would be complete without this trip down memory lane:
When bills do make it to the floor for a vote, the debate generally resembles what one House aide calls “preordained Kabuki.” Republican leaders in the Bush era have mastered a new congressional innovation: the one-vote victory. Rather than seeking broad consensus, the leadership cooks up some hideously expensive, favor-laden boondoggle and then scales it back bit by bit. Once they’re in striking range, they send the fucker to the floor and beat in the brains of the fence-sitters with threats and favors until enough members cave in and pass the damn thing. It is, in essence, a legislative microcosm of the electoral strategy that Karl Rove has employed to such devastating effect.
A classic example was the vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the union-smashing, free-trade monstrosity passed in 2005. As has often been the case in the past six years, the vote was held late at night, away from the prying eyes of the public, who might be horrified by what they see. Thanks to such tactics, the 109th is known as the “Dracula” Congress: Twenty bills have been brought to a vote between midnight and 7 a.m.
CAFTA actually went to vote early — at 11:02 p.m. When the usual fifteen-minute voting period expired, the nays were up, 180 to 175. Republicans then held the vote open for another forty-seven minutes while GOP leaders cruised the aisles like the family elders from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, frantically chopping at the legs and arms of Republicans who opposed the measure. They even roused the president out of bed to help kick ass for the vote, passing a cell phone with Bush on the line around the House cloakroom like a bong. Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina was approached by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who told him, “Negotiations are open. Put on the table the things that your district and people need and we’ll get them.” After receiving assurances that the administration would help textile manufacturers in his home state by restricting the flow of cheap Chinese imports, Hayes switched his vote to yea. CAFTA ultimately passed by two votes at 12:03 a.m.
I think the nation will be fine with legislation passed with only a majority vote, and Judd Gregg can go pound salt.
