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You can’t succeed, you can’t walk the talk, if you don’t believe in
what you preach. The Money Quote: “The
109th reflected a three-decade right-wing effort to degrade the concept and
practice of good governance. Its Contempt
For Government has been matched effectively by its ability to
undermine it.” [emphasis added] Vote to Clean Congress and change for the better, based on reason and
working for the greater common good. 109th Congress, We Hate To See
You Go OpEd by Michael McCord, Business Editor,
Portsmouth Herald and Sunday Herald, November 6, 2006 Late last month,
President Bush looked like a man sucking on rotten lemons when he signed
immigration legislation authorizing the building of a 700-mile fence along the
Mexican border. To his credit, even Bush, who rarely passes up the chance to
demagogue a divisive issue for every last ounce of political gain, knew this
absurd bill was a fraud - a product of election-year desperation that likely will never be built because it
wasn't funded fully
and contains so many caveats that it has become the 700-mile border fence that
really isn't. Oh, it also doesn't deal with the complex reality of illegal immigration. But the faux-fence
legislation did provide for a news cycle or two a chance for the Republican
leadership - an oxymoron if ever there was - to show it was more than an
endless source of fertile material for "The Daily Show." But true to
its nature, the border-fence bill only showed why the 109th Congress will go
down as one of the most corrupt and hapless in American history. That is no
small achievement. We don't know who will
control the 110th Congress, but we do know if this band of brigands in the
109th represented a major corporation, that company would be bankrupt, the
shareholders would be left to clean up the mess a la Enron and WorldCom, and
the executives would be facing prison. But instead of an endless parade of
deserved perp walks, many of these opportunists and enablers will be
re-elected. Here are a few of my
favorite reasons why the 109th deserves to be remembered for its uncivil
contributions: Work
unethic --
While Rome burned - or in this case Baghdad - the 109th was conspicuous in its
absence. President Harry Truman railed against a "do-nothing"
Republican-controlled 80th Congress in the 1948 election, but the 109th has
taken "do-nothing" to a record level - as in an estimated 93 days of legislative work in the
second session. This explains why
Republican 1st District Rep. Jeb Bradley spends so much time at home visiting
his constituents. Keeping in touch with the home folks is part of the job, but
it begs the question: What are Bradley and the rest of his colleagues doing? Well, they didn't do
much about developing an energy-independence plan or dealing with global
warming or Medicare. Though working so little, they didn't come close to
putting together a budget on time - much less one that didn't run up hundreds
of billions more in federal debt. But take heart. There
was the shameless Terri Schiavo political sideshow or not bothering to know what
they were voting on
when it came to the torture bill or the Patriot Act. To their credit, they did
pass an energy bill that gave tens of billions of dollars in tax cuts to oil
companies while they were flush with historically high profits. Call it
compassionate conservatism. Their
master's voice
- What the
Republican-led 109th does best is follow. It has been a panting and happily
obedient lapdog to President Bush. Lawmakers must have found the concept of
congressional oversight unseemly or just too much work. For a lesson in
congressional oversight, consider the Democrat-controlled Congress in 1966,
which held tough public hearings on the Vietnam War. To say the least, this did
not please President Lyndon Johnson, especially because he didn't want public
discussion of a policy that was already failing at the ground level in a
midterm election season. In comparison, Bush
has been subject to almost zero scrutiny from the Republican-led Congress. This was one-party rule
with a vengeance. The 109th can proudly say, like television's Sgt. Schultz,
that it knew nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing. The prevailing attitude is worthy of an
ostrich: Ask no tough questions and you can pretend all is well. As Iraq descended into a modern inferno and threatens to become the
greatest foreign policy debacle in our history, this Congress was nowhere to be
found on the accountability front - though it did know how to say, "Stay
the course." It showed no
backbone, no grit, no independence and
no curiosity
about administration incompetence (perhaps even this cheerleading Congress was
surprised by the unimaginable depth of the incompetence). For example, the 109th
asked for minimal accountability regarding the systematic theft of
billions of dollars of our taxes going to Iraq. And then when it got that accountability in the form of an
honest-to-goodness independent auditor - who proved to be a major embarrassment
to the administration - the partisans made sure that wouldn't last too long.
The auditor was politely fired by being de-funded, courtesy of a sneaky last-minute provision to
the most recent defense spending bill. It was a provision that few, if any,
knew about. But then, knowledge
hurts is the prevailing ethos of this Congress. For
sale
-- Throughout our
history, there has been a bipartisan corruption ebb and flow. When Mark Twain
said in the late 19th century that American politicians were the only native
criminal class, he was only slightly exaggerating the excesses of his age. He
would be right at home today. The difference with
many in this crew is the depth
of organization and lack of any ethical concern. Only the most brazen of the bunch were caught
-- such as Republicans Tom DeLay
or Randy "Duke" Cunningham
or Bob Ney or Democrat William Jefferson -- but hundreds more of our
elected elite and their staffs are caught in a continuous cycle of legal money
laundering. Not until Rep. Mark Foley, a popular Republican from Florida,
was revealed as a connoisseur of teenage congressional pages was the moribund
ethics committee revived. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert set the tone by blame shifting and shoulder shrugging. Ethics, it seems, are for sissies and
terrorist groupies. Looney
tunes
- Every Congress has
its share of, shall we say, members of questionable abilities. But this
Congress is setting new records for petulant behavior. Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, considered one of the surlier
members in D.C., pouted
last year when he was forced by Democrats to actually hold a hearing on the
Patriot Act. When the public did show up wanting to learn more, he literally
took his gavel and went home.
To make his point, he turned off the lights to the hearing room as he walked
out. Just the sort of civics lesson we want
to pass on to our children. Sensenbrenner, for
those who haven't paid attention, wants to have the Patriot Act
enthusiastically enforced -- against Americans. Then there's Rep. Jean
Schmidt, R-Ohio, who has redefined
what it means to be a witless political hack. Last year on the House floor, she
called Rep. Jack Murtha,
D-Pennsylvania, a "coward" and a cut-and-runner for advocating the
removal of American troops from Iraq. When informed that Murtha was a decorated
Marine Corps combat veteran, Schmidt said she didn't know that. That she hadn't
bothered to find out just who she was slandering speaks volumes about the civil
tone set in this Congress. Mission accomplished
-- But we must give credit where credit is due. The 109th reflected a
three-decade right-wing effort to degrade the concept and practice of good
governance. Its contempt for government has been matched effectively by its
ability to undermine it. It's proven to be a major success, a
self-fulfilling prophecy come true. Alas, it's an adolescent legacy that will
be easy to overcome for succeeding Congresses, no matter who's in charge. http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11052006/business-bizsun1105_limb.html |
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