Time to Change the Rules

Tomorrow, as promised, the Senate Intelligence Committee will meet and vote on ranking Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller's motion to investigate the NSA's illegal spying program. It appears fairly certain the committee will vote to investigate, though some extra pressure would obviously help things.

What's amazing is that once again, when the rules go against the Republicans, they seek to change the rules. How else to explain Majority Leader Bill Frist's threat to change the way the Intelligence Committee is structured, presumably to block the investigation from going forward, despite the fact that a majority of Senators on the Committee want to see that dont. I'm sure he'll characterize it as necessary to "protect the rights of the majority," my favorite new phrase I've heard lately.

Frist specifically threatened that if the Committee holds NSA hearings, he will fundamentally change the 30-year-old structure and operation of the Senate Intelligence Committee so as to make it like every other Committee, i.e., controlled and dominated by Republicans to advance and rubber-stamp the White House’s agenda rather than exercise meaningful and nonpartisan oversight.

Yet again, Republicans are threatening to radically change long-standing rules for how our government operates all because they cannot manipulate the result they want.

This attempt from all branches of government to make it a "to the victor goes the spoils" zero-sum game is really troubling. Are Republicans that convinced of their own brilliance that they expect never to suffer the consequences of being in the minority again? Or do they know something about Diebold Systems that we don't? I've never seen a political party be so brazen at consolidating power and protecting its own. Amusing that it's from the party of limited government.