Why Stop with the Deception Now

Rich Lowry notes that the Democratic leadership shouldn't start to suddenly be transparent in what they are doing:

The finale of the health-care debate couldn't be more fitting. House Democrats are considering passing an exotic parliamentary rule relieving them of the burden of voting for the underlying bill, which will be "deemed" passed.

So a bill sold under blatantly false pretenses and passed in the Senate on the strength of indefensible deals would become law in a final flourish of deceptive high-handedness. How appropriate for what would be the worst piece of federal domestic legislation since the fascistic, recovery-impairing National Recovery Act of 1933 or the Prohibition disaster of 1920.

The self-executing rule is ten times as bad as the Senate "vote on the reconciliation" because at least the Senate holds a vote. A House "self-executing" would not even have a vote--which leaves every single vulnerable Democrat with the ability to say "Well, if we had a vote, I would have voted against it." The beauty of that mindset is that it provides cover without any evidence to the contrary.

The problem is that more and more Americans are distrustful of the machinations. Not enough Americans and rightfully so, don't understand the minute mechanics of legislative procedures. But they do understand whether a bill has been voted on or not. Americans do understand when legislators are ducking responsibility.

A self-executing rule should be read as political suicide.