The strategy on the Medicare bill has angered even more lawmakers from both chambers. Those members of the House-Senate negotiating committee who were not invited to the real meetings where the bill was written were given a copy of the 1,100-page measure less than an hour before being asked to vote on it on Thursday.

“Believe it or not, members like to know what they’re voting on,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader…

- from The NY Times

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If I had more time, there’d be a hilarious sketch for you to peruse surrounding the latest round of Bush administration rush-jobs:

- Perhaps a flashback to the Constitutional Congress, wherein the entire Constitution has to be approved by most of the delegates in 60 minutes. I see Alexander Hamilton saying, “Yeah, but Thomas, this bit about droit de seigneur seems a little off-point…”

- Or maybe some sort of list of the more questionable provisions from the energy and Medicare bills. Things like the “Bechtel Gets Oregon” provision, or the $60 million for the “DeLay Library and Filling Station” on lands which wind themselves in a serpentine fashion through seven different counties.

- Or perchance a survey of some of the next set of 11th hour bills presented to a weary Congress, like “The Elimination of Democrats Act” or the “Sense of Congress Regarding the Benefits of Allowing Toxins into the Environment and Thus Strengthening the Human Species Resolution.”

But there’s no time, readers, no damned time. Those stillborn satirical gems will have to live in our imaginations until my free time coincides with the abused eve of a Congressional recess. In other words, next time. Fear not, after these two bills, Iraq, and the Patriot Act, I don’t think the Bush administration is planning to abandon the Shoot First, Think Later model of government any time soon.