Hastert's Stubborness, High-Handedness & Corruption

The Speaker's Decree vs. Democracy

Obviously Dennis Hastert has not read the Constitution and is making his own grab for powers and authority not granted to him by our form of government. His decree that a bill on immigration must pass muster within the exclusivity of the Republican caucus demonstrates the arrogance of the Republican leadership, as well as the strnaglehold the Republicans have placed on our representative form of governing. Add to this the recent news that he is somehow involved in the Abramoff scandals (note the plurality), and his obligatory denials, and Good Old Boy Dennis is a victim of his own lack of integrity, lack of proper leadership and a Constitutional dunce.

Let us all remember this when it is time to vote for new members of congress... and let us even out the numbers for each party, forcing them to work and play well with each other.

After all the legislative hash that the Republican Congress has made of immigration policy, the worst is yet to come. Any workable compromise that a bipartisan mix of senators may manage this week must, perforce, run into negotiations with House obstructionists. And none are more hard-core than Speaker Dennis Hastert. He stands waiting with his triumphalist decree that no bill, even one fairly balancing border protection and enlightened naturalization law, can be put to a vote unless a majority of his Republican caucus — not some larger majority of, yes, the people's House — agree to it.

"The job of speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority of his majority." Thus spoke Speaker Hastert in a little noticed moment of czarist excess three years ago that his office is now stressing as the immigration issue churns toward a two-house negotiation.

This odious doctrine would be a major hurdle to any immigration bill, but especially to one that actually threatens to attract a bipartisan majority.

Thus is Mr. Hastert giving 116 Republican lawmakers out of his total caucus of 231 members the power to bottle up a bill, even if most of the House's 435 members eventually support something like the Senate compromise. And this is not just talk. Mr. Hastert, whose minions easily hamstring the rules of open debate, has repeatedly used his ukase to snuff out bipartisanship, even on such crucial affairs of state as the Medicare drug program.

In the past, leaders of Democratic majorities did not hesitate to elbow Republicans out of play on issues and keep them on a leash. But bipartisanship always had a chance to prevail, while the Hastert doctrine makes partisanship a sweeping dogma. The speaker should beware: increasingly, voters are watching the feckless, partisan Congress with disapproval, according to opinion polls, and House zealots intent on turning the immigration bill into a xenophobe's manifesto will have to confront them.