Welcome to the new order, Part III. -- So you will know. A primer of government of the majority of the majority. And what goes around, comes around.

Excerpts from a 11-27-04 Washington Post article entitled:

Hastert Launches a Partisan Policy

In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.

Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution.

Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them.

Senators from both parties, leaders of the Sept. 11 commission and others have sharply criticized the policy. The long-debated intelligence bill would now be law, they say, if Hastert and his lieutenants had been humble enough to let a high-profile measure pass with most votes coming from the minority party.

Citing the increased marginalization of Democrats as House bills are drafted and brought to the floor, Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) said, "It's a set of rules and practices which the Republicans have taken to new extremes."

Hastert put his principle into practice one week ago today. In a closed meeting in the Capitol basement, he urged his GOP colleagues to back the intelligence bill that had emerged from long House-Senate negotiations and had President Bush's support. When a surprising number refused, Hastert elected to keep it from reaching a vote, even though his aides said it could have passed with a minority of GOP members and strong support from the chamber's 206 Democrats.

In the new Congress that convenes in January, Hastert's strategy may prove sufficient for GOP victories on issues that sharply divide the two parties, such as tax cuts, several analysts said. But on trade issues and other matters that are more divisive within the parties -- and thus require bipartisan coalitions to pass -- he could face serious problems.

Hastert's "majority of the majority" maxim, [Norman] Ornstein [of the American Enterprise Institute] said, "is a disastrous recipe for tackling domestic issues such as entitlement programs, the deficit and things like that."
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I noted in the title that what goes around, comes around, meaning of course that the pendulum always swings, and our day will return.

But by the time I finished this post, I have reconsidered. On particular issues, such a position could perhaps justifiably be employed to gain a more partisan flavor. But to run a country this way as a matter of routine so as to insure that the Speaker keeps his job?

When our day in the sun returns, I think we would do best to not do as those whom we have criticized.