A Few Bad Men

And so on. None of these changes are illegal, but I think they make it pretty clear that the GOP's ultimate objective is the consolidation of a one-party system in this country -- in fact if not literally in name.

The unwritten rules exist because both political parties accept the possibility they may one day be in the minority, and thus have a vested interest in preserving rights or privileges they themselves may need to exercise. But if one of the parties has no intention of ever losing again -- or at least, is willing to gamble on its ability to avoid ever losing again -- then it will no longer have an incentive to support minority rights, but will have every incentive to try to abolish them, if possible.

The next step is to start breaking the written rules, if and when you think you can get away with it. The Valerie Plame affair, and the leak of the Democratic staff memo from the Senate Intelligence Committee (just to mention a couple of the things we actually know about) suggest the Republicans have already reached that point.

It's a curious way for a democracy to die -- one small cut at a time, with the media (who should have a vested interest in preserving democracy) standing on the sidelines and cheering for the people who are gradually squeezing the life out of it.

But I suppose Col. Jessep -- the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men -- was right: Some people really can't handle the truth. And they don't want anybody else to handle it, either.
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