“Simply put, the tactics of Tit-for-Tat are: We will do to you what you have done to us — plus extra as punishment.”

It is not surprising that with the House of Representatives in GOP control starting this next year, a number of conversations are going on regarding what should be the main priorities of the incoming party. Committees will be staffed and pursue largely legislative and investigative activities. In both of these areas, the Democratic Party has turned to unconventional methods, to put it lightly.

Legislatively the previous House decided to not just stop at censuring a member thought to have performed some action deemed by the body as unbecoming and instead moved to remove certain members from sitting on committees entirely, and further limited minority power beyond what was historically agreed upon. Regarding Congressional Investigative actions, there is no greater example of abuse by the outgoing Democrats than the shameful “Select Committee on the January 6 Attack,” which saw minority-selected members for the committee rejected by the majority.

The results were an investigative committee staffed entirely by members hand-picked by the majority. The committee performed outrageous actions almost solely focused on members of the minority, and suspiciously only on aspects of that day that cast the minority, their party, and the formal Presidential candidate in unflattering lights. It is not a matter of whether there is or is not validity to the subjects investigated, it is rather a matter of proper due process – a process that in this country is done largely via an adversarial system of justice. There was no adversary, therefore, there was no true investigation ever performed by this select committee.

Now that there is new leadership (kind of — we don’t know yet who will be the next Speaker, but we will…), talk of doing to the new Democratic minority the same things that were previously done to the Republicans has begun. Some folks, understandably, look down on these actions seeing them as unproductive, vindictive, or in some way unbecoming of grown statesmen and they wish to return to proper order. Others wish not only to return the favor of the aforementioned actions, but to add an almost inflationary-like increase in their severity and scope.

Personally, I want to see a new standard of Punitive Tit-for-Tat Action enacted. It should be spoken clearly and forcefully by whomever the new Speaker is, and equally clearly and concisely written down for future reference and public consumption.

Simply put, the tactics of Tit-for-Tat are: We will do to you what you have done to us – plus extra as punishment.

For example, take the removal of certain members from committee assignments. This will be done the number of instances equal to what was done to us PLUS additional members as punishment. You treat us like children, we will treat you like children — with interest. Perhaps next time, you will refrain from these actions and govern like civilized members of a modern Western nation.

We will make a new January 6 Select Committee and will staff it with only our hand-picked choices, and this time there will be no members of the minority at all. This trend may very well continue into some of the other select committees for investigation we may form — as punishment for your misbehavior. We will demand answers from the various institutions involved, and if answers are not forthcoming, we will target and defund sections of that agency in the next budget.

Throughout this time, anytime someone complains or laments the actions of the new GOP majority, the response will be to simply point to the Tit-for-Tat Actions memo and shrug our shoulders. We did not start this fight, but we will end this fight — by rubbing the minority’s nose in the mess they made while making use of the proverbial rolled-up newspaper to forcefully repeat, “No! Bad use of legislative rules! No!”

I look forward to hearing everyone’s take on what should be done regarding returning the favors to the new minority party. I don’t see how we can just go back to “normal” without engaging in some Tit-for-Tat Tactics. How else will they learn unless someone hits back. A classic bully needs classic response.