Resolved:

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), member of Tom DeLay’s ruthless House leadership team, is prohibited from joining calls by Congressional Republicans asking the new Democratic leadership to play nice.

To be clear, I do not begrudge Republicans in general from issuing those requests. By and large, I’d even agree with them: the Democrats must seize this opportunity to reform the poisonous legislative climate that has evolved over the past 12 years, and restore some measure of fairness and openess to the system.

But folks like Rep. Cantor have absolutely no right to talk about Democrats’ “old abusive practices,” given that he was a crucial part of an unprecedentedly vicious political machine that gleefully steamrolled even the formalities of including the minority party. Although Cantor (like myself) is Jewish, I still think he might want to read about dealing with specks before logs.