What You Are Missing (1) - B r a a a a i i i n

Case in point: Republicans changing the rules of Congress to suit themselves.

Here's the way I understood it: majority Republican congresspersons changed House rules back-in-the-day so that anyone in a position of power within the House - meaning, Democrats - would be handed their cards if they were ever indicted on a felony beef. Then, yesterday, the evil bastard Republicans changed the rules back again, now that their guy - their leader, DeLay - is expecting a Knock from the Filth, right?

So I'm reading Josh Marshall at lunchtime, right - who is having an orgasmic day winkling answers out of Republican Representatives, see who'll admit they voted for it - reading, eating, fries and bread dunked on autopilot, horseradish-to-mouth, au-jus-to-mouth, dribbling on shirt, eyes scanning feral askew, brow furrowed indignant, when:
- Hold on?
- What did that say?

A number of congressmen (no congresswomen yet) are now telling their constituents that there's no question to answer because the DeLay Rule never came to a vote. (Staffers from Congressmen Tom Davis and Tom Feeney offices have both used this line, according to TPM readers.)

Whadda they mean it "never came to a vote"? Can one party act alone to change the rules that govern the whole House? From behind closed doors, without even a nod from their opponents?

Course not. Idiot. Grabbed the wrong end of the stick - again. Old, old, story: there really isn't a wrong conclusion that I won't leap at.

Sigh. All that stink raging around the blogs this week, and here's me - I, Bearded; I, Numpty - completely arsed the whole situation.

They are not changing any damned "Rules of the House"! They are not, after all, abusing their majority to murther fair Democracy, to re-write Procedure to suit their own diabolical ends!

No: all the Republicans have done is tinker with their own Mission Statement; with that cute little Sacred Heart of Congress Promisekeeper tract they hand around to passers-by in Malls and Strip bars.

I was wrong, very wrong, and I apologise. But, this? This is so much more fun now; now that it doesn't really mean anything. All that Liberal bleeting and blaahting, calling up congresspersons, taking names and vote rolls, writing stiff letters - it's all just fluff and nonsense. A gambol in the hay before the rain comes, when we'll all have to run inside so we don't get wet.

Heh. As they say.