Weren't Liberals Complaining about Republicans before?

Democrats are wielding a heavy hand on the House Rules Committee, committing many of the procedural sins for which they condemned Republicans during their 12 years in power.

So far this year, Democrats have frequently prevented Republicans from offering amendments, limited debate in the committee and, just last week, maneuvered around chamber rules to protect a $23 million project for Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.).

On Wednesday, Democrats suggested changing the House rules to limit the minority's right to offer motions to recommit bills back to committee -- violating a protection that has been in place since 1822.

Much of this heavy-handedness is standard procedure in the House, where the majority has every right to dominate, but it contradicts the many campaign promises Democratic leaders made last year to run a cleaner, more open Congress.

Just last December, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) declared that Democrats "intend to have a Rules Committee ... that gives opposition voices and alternative proposals the ability to be heard and considered on the floor of the House."

If this sounds familiar, it is. Republicans made similar promises in 1994, only to renege when they took control of the Congress in 1995.

Democrats have made a number of small revisions -- such as meeting earlier in the day -- but their overall record in the new Congress has fallen well short of that goal.

"The Democrats have not made good on a single promise they made during 2006, especially when it comes to fostering a more open and deliberative House of Representatives," Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said. "Instead of making the House more open and deliberative, they've gone in the opposite direction, doing things we never even contemplated during our time in the majority."

The Democratic spokesman for the Rules Committee sees it differently.

"We've passed a lot of bills, and we've passed them through the committees," said spokesman John Santore. "We're operating in an objectively fair way."

The Rules Committee itself is an often overlooked partisan backwater, where members engage in fierce debates about what amendments, if any, members can offer to bills on the floor. Under Republican rule, the committee often met late at night, when few reporters were around to cover the minority's protests.

The committee, arguably the majority's most powerful tool, serves as a bulwark for the party in power, allowing it to limit debate on controversial bills and prevent the minority from offering amendments to dramatically alter legislation introduced by the majority.

As such, the committee is extremely partisan, and that partisanship often gets personal. The current chairwoman, Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-N.Y.), for example, has an extremely strained relationship with California Rep. David Dreier, the committee's ranking Republican, who preceded her as chairman.

Republicans need to stop complaining and grow some balls.
Regain power by doing what you said you are going to do in 1994 and becoming the conservatives which America so desperately needs!