Republicans and Their Own Medicine

Give me a break! What a bunch of whiners!

As the new Democratic Congress prepared to be sworn in today and elect Nancy Pelosi of California the first female speaker of the House of Representatives, partisan gamesmanship seasoned with hypocrisy threatened to override pledges of a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

House Democrats said Wednesday they would break one of their major promises: granting Republicans the kind of full participation in the legislative process that they were denied while Republicans held power the past 12 years.

(snip)

Republicans held a news conference to complain.

Yes, yes, we know that you've had to 12 years to treat us however you like with barely a mention of the abuse in the press, but now that the Democrats are in charge, all of a sudden it's a media issue. And excuse me if I wasn't aware that Pelosi promised the very first item on the agenda would be giving the Republicans treatment they didn't do anything to deserve. They complain about "breaking a promise," but if we had given them robust minority rights from the beginning, we'd end up breaking the rest of the promises we made because the Republicans would block the legislation!

It's a ridiculous comedy, but also more than a little sad. It's simply pathetic how quickly and completely the Republicans have flipped into "victimized minority" mode - when the Congress hasn't even started yet!