Another reason why I hate Tom DeLay...

This is from an August 2005 RollingStone article that I stumbled upon in my daily travels:

"[...]the Rules Committee members scurry to begin what will be a very long night of work. To most everyone outside those nine majority members, what transpires in the committee the night before a floor vote is a mystery on the order of the identity of Jack the Ripper or the nature of human afterlife. Even the Democrats who sit on the committee have only a vague awareness of what goes on. 'They can completely rewrite bills,' says McGovern. 'Then they take it to the floor an hour later. Nobody knows what's in those bills.'

One singular example of this came four years ago, when the Judiciary Committee delivered the first Patriot Act to the Rules Committee for its consideration. Dreier trashed that version of the act, which had been put together by the bipartisan committee, and replaced it with a completely different bill that had been written by John Ashcroft's Justice Department.

The bill went to the floor a few hours later, where it passed into law. The Rules Committee is supposed to wait out a three-day period before sending the bill to the House, ostensibly in order to give the members a chance to read the bill. The three-day period is only supposed to be waived in case of emergency. However, the Rules Committee of DeLay and Dreier waives the three-day period as a matter of routine. This forces members of Congress to essentially cast blind yes-or-no votes to bills whose contents are likely to be an absolute mystery to them."

Yeah, at that wasn't even the part of the article where you could see legislators being slapped around for trying to go against their party.

Check it out. It is a long one, but certainly gives a look at the inside of life in Washington. If you like to be disgusted and disheartened, this is just for you. You sick you.

Peace.