John Kline Whines About Getting Treated Like a Democrat

After whining about the fact that the majority Democrats have hit the ground running to live up to their promise to pass major reform legislation in the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress, Kline joined a handful of other Republicans to demand that the Democrats treat them better than the Democrats were treated during their 12 years in the minority.

Led by Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Kline and 10 other Republicans held press conference to promote their Minority Bill of Rights --- ironically drawing on a proposal then-minority leader Nancy Pelosi put forward two years ago, which the Republican leadership greeted with deafening indifference.

The hypocrisy and whining involved here is staggering, and I finally discovered a news report which does it justice:

Of course, the 11 Republicans did their best to quickly brush over the fact that, well, when they were in power, they failed to allow Democrats the same minority rights they now seek.

"Uh, you know, look," Cantor said. "Um, a lot of things that went on in prior Congresses, um, um, may not have been, uh, what we all would have liked to see, but we are here now."

"If you look at many of us here, here on the stage today," McHenry said, "we were not in Congress in 2004 so I didn’t have an opportunity to do that."

But the press was having none of it, accosting the members after the cameras went black.

"Isn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle back?" one reporter asked McHenry.

"You do see the irony here, right?" barked another.

"Is this an acknowledgment that the GOP leadership was wrong?"

A light mist of nervous sweat appeared on McHenry’s forehead.

"Don’t you worry that this is going to sound like a lot of whining?" snapped one last journalist.

For twelve years, Republicans have by and large gotten away with making completely ridiculous statements to a guileless press, which rarely called them on their nonsense. Let's hope this is the start of a new, more responsible media who will ask tough questions of leaders who talk nonsense.