GOP Sees Disturbing Reflection in The Mirror

Washington Post.com by Jim VandeHei and Juliet Eilperin April 9, 2006
Gingrich said the party became too preoccupied with creating and maintaining safe GOP districts as part of an effort to cement a lasting majority. Gingrich, who originally championed the idea, said he now thinks the tactic has had the effect of undermining democracy and distancing House members from their roots.

Democrats "get to rip off the public in the states where they control and protect their incumbents, and we get to rip off the public in the states we control and protect our incumbents, so the public gets ripped off in both circumstances," Gingrich said. "In the long run, there's a downward spiral of isolation."

When I read that Gingrich quote my first thought was, 'at last, somebody in the GOP gets it and will say so.

And then I came to this:
...During the last Congress, the 108th, only 22 percent of legislation was considered with an open rule allowing the minority to offer amendments from the floor, compared with 30 percent under the Democrats' 103rd Congress. When Democrats offered 29 amendments to a medical malpractice bill last Congress, GOP leaders blocked all of them from coming to a vote.

Well that casts a new light on the Republican complaint, 'Democrats don't have a plan'

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