Miss Manners-type rules will have to wait

Oh boy, here we go again. The story out of D.C. is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have settled on a plan to keep Republicans in a tight little box while Democrats pursue their first-100-hours legislative agenda.

House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.

But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Our initial reaction was completely negative. Congress is held in such low esteem by the public now, the last thing the new Democratic majority needs is bad publicity for being as overbearing as the Republicans have been for years.

The voting, taxpaying public wants to see change — for the better — not only in what Congress does, but in how Congress does it. That includes not keeping minority party members in a tight little box where their input is minimal and their efforts to affect the outcome of the legislative process are futile.

However, Pelosi and Hoyer have been on the frontlines through the long, dark night of GOP rule. They’ve had to bide their time watching, mostly helplessly, as Republicans committed some of the worst corruption, chicanery and spitefulness in congressional history. All that on top of exercising no oversight and passing virtually no worthwhile legislation for years.

Now, Pelosi, Hoyer and the Democratic Caucus want to move some genuinely good legislation, quickly and without its being watered down. They want to build a positive record on which to grow their majority in 2008.

Over at Balloon Juice, John Cole says they should go for it:

I agree 100% with this decision. While this will give the cheerleaders on the right some early cannon fodder (“See- the Democrats are no different!”), this can be completely countered with the simple statement- “Hey — we are just using your rules.” Politically, it might be damaging to the Democrats in the short run, but the alternative is to let the Republicans participate early on, defeat or screw up all the initiatives the Democrats plan to pass, and have the Republicans then claim the Democrats didn’t change anything.

Cole makes an excellent case. Politics ain’t beanbag, and adopting rules that would make Miss Manners happy might be too much to expect right now.

So, with some deeply held misgivings, we’re going to endorse this strategy — provided Pelosi lets Republicans out of their box once the initial legislative drive is completed.

We’ve seen more than enough of tit-for-tat and overbearing ways. As slight as our regard for House Republicans’ idea of a good legislative time is, we recognize the glaring need to make the institution work again in a reasonably bipartisan way.

The ball is in Pelosi’s court. We hope she’ll play it with due care for longterm consequences, the overall good of the country and of its political system.