While the Bush administration has earned a well-deserved reputation for acting in secrecy, similar cloak-and-dagger tactics are popping up on Capitol Hill, where the Republican majority has demonstrated that it can make legislation appear or vanish without even a vote.

A case in point came before Congress' Christmas recess, when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist inserted an immunity provision for flu vaccine manufacturers in a defense bill after other lawmakers had agreed that it would be left out.

Now the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that GOP officials slipped a $22 billion gift to the health-insurance industry into legislation that was supposed to cut the federal budget. The action was taken during a meeting from which Democratic lawmakers and their staff members were excluded.

According to congressional observers, such tactics are becoming the norm as Republicans exercise their legislative prerogative in a manner not found in any civics textbook. Under the traditional procedure, bills are introduced, amended in committee and debated and voted on in the House and Senate. If different versions of similar legislation are passed, a conference committee of members from each chamber is supposed to be appointed to reconcile them.

But what's happening is that the bills actually are being rewritten behind closed doors by GOP leaders, assisted by their staffs and with input from special-interest lobbyists. In some cases, changes reportedly have been made even after conference committees have met and voted.

Such practices were employed occasionally when Democrats held power but observers say they have been elevated to an art form by the GOP majority. It's gotten to the point that no one knows what's in -- or out of -- legislation they're voting on until well after the votes have been counted. Moreover, major public-policy changes are slipped into law without any kind of public notice or debate.

Such tactics are more than high-handed. They are a fundamental short-circuiting of the legislative process, just one more layer in the culture of corruption that is slowly strangling Washington and making a mockery of our democratic form of government.