Republicans Complaining about Minority Rights - themselves!

CNN's article about the Democrats taking over Congress also includes concerns by Republicans that they will be cut out of setting House rules and is urging Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to adopt the same "minority bill of rights" that the Democrats had urged in 2004.

Republicans want guarantees that they will be able to offer substitute legislation and amendments to bills as they move through the chamber.

Didn't Democrats wanted the same thing after the Republicans won Congress back in 1994 and again in 2004?

Obviously, I understand the euphoria for the Republicans after they ousted their counterparts after 40 years of power, now after 12 years of being in the majority, the Republicans are now back in the minority. They are now fearing that the Democrats will put them down just like what they did to them.

Also, Republicans are complaining about Democrats pushing through their 100-hour legislation without their input. If they can remember back in 1994, Newt Gingrich's Republicans pushed their Contract with America through Congress during the first 100 days. Of course, implementation of the Contract did not do so well since most of the bills died in the Senate. In the end, it was pretty much a mythical than material role in their victory.

Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat said they will treat the Republicans much better after their 100-hour legislation has been passed.

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Here's some more. In the House TV gallery yesterday, Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry (North Carolina) demanded that the new Democratic majority give the new Republican minority all the rights that Republicans had denied Democrats for years.

"The bill we offer today, the minority bill of rights, is crafted based on the exact text that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted in 2004 to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert," declared McHenry, with 10 Republican colleagues arrayed around him. "We're submitting this minority bill of rights, which will ensure that all sides are protected, that fairness and openness is in fact granted by the new majority."