Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sorry that he wasn’t able to blog much on Friday. Internet connectivity problems. Then on Friday evening he went down to the Smallholder’s farm and picked up his beef and butcher hog. It was glorious… Your Maximum Leader has been eating sausage and roasted pork all weekend. Damn it is fine. If you are local to Virginia and interested in organic beef and pork - shoot the Smallholder an e-mail as he is planning out next year…

Anyho… Time to move on to insightful political commentary…

Your Maximum Leader is becoming more and more convinced that een with redistricting and safe-seats in their favour that the Republicans are in a position where they can loose control of the House of Representatives in 2006. To wit, they are having trouble getting basic bills to the floor of the House. If you recall (and your Maximum Leader is sure you do) that the Democrats couldn’t pass a rule to debate their own crime bill in 1994. When your party can’t muster enough votes to pass a rule establishing floor debate on a bill your party supports, and your party is the majority party; you are in serious trouble friend.

Excursus: For those of you who don’t know what a “rule” is in this context… When a bill is discharged from Committee in the House of Representatives it must go to the “Rules Committee.” The Rules Committee of the House then determines the order that bills will be introduced to the floor of the House and then establishes debate guidelines. Debate guidelines are how much time will each side have to debate the bill, will amendments be allowed. All that good stuff. Then when the Rules Committee is done with the bill it is sent to the floor of the House to be read. But before debate can begin, the “Rules” of debate must be approved. This is oftentimes a straight party line vote. So when you are the majority and you can’t win a straight party line vote - you’re in serious doo-doo.

So… The problem with the Republicans is that they have no agenda. The President doesn’t have one to lead on. And the House Republicans are divided. Divided between Conservatives and Republicans. As many are fond of pointing out, just because you are a conservative doesn’t mean you are a Republican. (Some are fond of calling “moderate” Republicans RINOs - or Republicans In Name Only. This assumes that the Republican Party is the Conservative Party. While the Republican Party is generally more conservative than the Democrats this doesn’t mean that the whole party is “Conservative.” Indeed, of late one has been able to see just how many non-conservative Republicans there are out there.)

The divided House - as Mr. Lincoln told us - cannot stand. And if you aren’t doing something in Congress you tend to lose the majority status…

Of course, your Maximum Leader - as longtime readers know - if fond of gridlock. That is to say that he really likes it when Congress can’t pass legislation due to differences between the political parties, the two chambers of the Congress, and the Executive Branch. Indeed, your Maximum Leader is all for lots and lots of gridlock. But he’s dismayed when one chamber of the Congress can’t even work itself up to becoming gridlocked. This is to say that your Maximum Leader likes the elected representatives of the people to try to get something done and fail as opposed to do nothing at all.

So it is looking bad right now for House Republicans. Of course, 2006 elections are still a year off. And who knows what can happen between now and then. But portents herald ill-tidings unless the situation changes.

Carry on.