Throwing their weight around

Not content with having majority control of all three branches of government, Republican legislators are changing rule after rule to marginalize party moderates and write Democrats out of the process of running the country.

1. They are altering the process for Senate committee appointments, to give party loyalty more weight than seniority.
   
2. They have already rewritten a rule to allow House leaders to stay in power even if indicted with a felony (and this involved unwriting a rule that they originally put in place).
   
3. They are threatening to change the Senate rule that allows for filibusters (see more on this "nuclear option" here), probably as soon as the new (crazier) class is sworn in.

Kevin Drum traces the history of the GOP's gradual unraveling of Senate rules:

Remember that the next time you hear one of them whining about the "unprecedented" use of the filibuster by Democrats. It wouldn't have come to this in the first place if it weren't for the unprecedented destruction of senatorial tradition ruthlessly engineered by Senate Republicans over the past six years.

It's hard not to see this as part of a GOP conspiracy to have complete control over the government, especially in light of DeLay's statement that his party now has a permanent majority . . .

Update: Seems that they're making the most of their majority for backroom dealings as well. Bills are being rushed through without discussion (and then provisions that were sneaked in in the middle of the night are repented at leisure) and the Rules Committee has become a secretive mechanism for stifling debate, preventing votes on much legislation, and unraveling wording that has been painstakingly crafted by bipartisan committees.
(via Rebecca's Pocket)