Stacking the Deck

As national Republicans wrestle with the corruption that threatens their party's dominance and Virginia Republicans dust themselves off after another electoral drubbing Tuesday, I'm surprised that members of the House of Delegates seem to pay no mind.

In a New York Times article today, Joe Gaylord, who helped bring the GOP to power in 1994, says Republican leaders in Congress must reverse their unfair tactics under its new majority leader Jim Boehner of Ohio.

"This offers them an opportunity to start off in a new direction," he said. "We've gotten former members off the floor and out of the gym. But for Congress to look better in the eyes of voters, they have to turn a new page. There actually has to be a difference. They have to be fairer: conference committees with Republicans and Democrats on them."

Coincidentally, Virginia House leaders this year adopted rules to limit participation by Democrats in the legislative process. On the first day of businesslast month, the Republicans changed House rules. Because subcommittees are often small, they only had power to recommend for or against legislation, whereas only the full committee could kill a bill. And membership on committees was generally proportional to the House membership at large, which today stands about 60-40, Republicans to Democrats. But under the new rules, subcommittees can kill legislation, and membership on them includes more than 60% Republicans. For example, my Firearms subcommittee has only five members, and I'm the only Democrat. That disparity exists on many subcommittees.