Senate Republicans are hopping mad over Democrat Janet Howell’s high-handed ruling – in violation of Senate rules — barring a series of bills important to the GOP and their various constituencies from getting a full committee hearing.  But it’s not the first time the Senate’s majority party has abandoned its rule book in the pursuit of political expediency.

In the 2010 General Assembly session, Sen. Mark Obenshain noted that Senate Democrats – in mid-session – had decided to allow subcommittees to kill legislation. As Obenshain wrote at the time, the way they made the change would have made a petty dictator blush:  “…the Democratic leadership of the Senate of Virginia decided that bills could die in subcommittee. The Rules of the Senate had not been amended, and no new interpretation was advanced: it’s just the way things are going to be.”