This Sounds Familiar

It's called "ruling," not "governing":

Speaker Ryan on Wednesday behind closed doors told Republican House members he will restrict the amendment process, effectively thwarting one of the few avenues Democrats have to advance their legislation, given the vast majority of the House is Republican, and bipartisanship is rare in today's toxic environment.

Ryan "is cracking down on Democrats' ability to win floor votes on hotly contested issues such as LGBT rights," the Associated Press reports late Wednesday morning. "The move means Ryan is reneging on a promise to protect the rights of lawmakers to take on a wide range of issue when the House debates annual spending bills."

"Hotly contested issues" -- read, "Issues on which the GOP is completely out of step with the rest of the country."

This, of course, is directly opposed to the promise he made when assuming the gavel to protect members' right to submit and advance bills. I guess he didn't think any Democrats would exercise that right.

This, I think, says it all:

Politico adds that an unnamed House aide "said Ryan is hearing that members 'want the Rules Committee to make sure we can govern as a majority and not allow Democrats to use the amendment process to take down the bills and derail the House’s work. . . ."

"Govern as a majority" -- don't they call that "one-party rule"? And isn't that the way it used to work in places like the U.S.S.R.?

More on this from TPM -- it looks like no one is happy:

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told the Hill newspaper that Ryan's hand was forced.

“I think it was something he probably preferred not to do, but he felt like he had to do,” Cole said. “That’s his responsibility as Speaker. You have to make some tough decisions.

Not everyone was convinced.

“Our leadership is using this as an excuse to close down the process,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told the Hill.

Democrats took their own shot at Ryan for the decision.

“It has long been clear that regular order is not as important to Republicans as protecting their special interest agenda. Republicans are clearly afraid of the will of the House when it comes to protecting LGBT Americans or standing up for hard-working families," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

Well, back to gridlock.