A ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress — by design (redux)

June 6, 2006

About a month ago, the Boston Globe reported that Republican leaders in Congress were considering a legislative agenda in which they would literally give up on passing major policy initiatives and instead focus on divisive bills that they didn’t expect to pass.

According to (subscription-only) Roll Call, the Senate GOP is officially on board with the plan and, despite a 10-seat lead over Senate Democrats, they won’t try and pass any more substantive bills, at least for several months.

With only a few months left on the legislative calendar, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has decided to abandon any efforts at bipartisanship in favor of using his chamber to hold a series of highly partisan, mostly symbolic votes on conservative causes, including amendments banning gay marriage and flag burning, and fully repealing the estate tax.

Although Frist has peppered the Senate schedule with a handful of substantive issues — including likely votes this week on a new U.S. trade representative, a Native Hawaiian-rights bill and a new mine-safety czar — the chamber will put off work on major legislation such as the fiscal 2007 Defense authorization bill in order for Frist to pursue items of special interest to his party’s conservative base.

So, during a war, the Senate Republican leadership would rather spend three days debating an anti-gay constitutional amendment — that they know isn’t going to pass — than finish negotiations on a Defense authorization bill. In fact, the entire legislative process has now effectively come to a halt so Frist & Co., who’ve blown off the far-right base for months, can go through the motions on some hopeless legislation.

It’s been painfully obvious for a while now, but it’s almost comical how unserious congressional Republicans are about matters of state.

yep. The party of ideas.

  • “who’ve blown the far-right base for months” – CB

    Any chance you mean “blown off” ?

    My, my, Republican’ts not debating the Defense appropriation. Why does this not surprise me?

    All we can do is hold them up to redicule as best we can and give the MSM no excuse for accepting their talking points.

  • so Frist & Co., who’ve blown the far-right base for months,

    I guess Frist is against gay marriage but not against gay sexual activity!?

    I always suspected that guy was in the closet…

  • Isn’t this the logical outcome for a party that routinely runs against the “evils” of govenment? Actual governance requires a commitment to governing, for the Republican’ts power is simply a tool to reward friends and punish enemies.

  • “for the Republican’ts power is simply a tool to reward friends and punish enemies.” – Chris Rank

    Maybe, but the Defense Appropriations bill is a big part of rewarding friends. Every year they are late with appropriations bills and that costs money to the defense manufacturers and contractors who are buying their votes, damnit.

    They need to get to work!

  • Any chance you mean “blown off” ?

    Well, that’s certainly among my more embarrassing typos, now isn’t it?

  • “Well, that’s certainly among my more embarrassing typos, now isn’t it?” – CB

    It certainly made my day picturing the image you conjured 😉

  • Steve, I don’t think the Estate Tax vote is at all symbolic. Of all the issues listed above, this one is in the most danger of actually passing. Too many Democrats (see Baucus) are talking compromise lately, and no one knows what McCain will do.

    I work with the Coalition 4 America’s Priorities, and you can click on my name to go to the site. We’ve got more information on it, as well as information on how to contact your senators and let them know — keep the Estate Tax where it is. We need it now more than ever.

  • Indeed, I agree that it’s shameful of the GOP in Congress to be playing these games. Scarier still, to me, that they’re even considering something like the repeal of the estate tax at a time when we face record-breaking deficits and ever-growing expenses. That one in particular is due to hit the floor any day now, and really is something that’s a downright waste of time.

    If you’re interested in contacting your Senators about it, by the way, feel free to check out my coalition’s website at http://coalition4americaspriorities.com/ for more information.

  • In fact, the entire legislative process has now effectively come to a halt…

    In other words, the dreaded nuclear option has been invoked, in essence, by the Senate Republicans. We could have filibustered Alito or one of the other wingnut judicial appointees and worse case be where we are now (with the caveat that we could then ram through some left wing judges when our turn came). Right? Why am I not suprised. Any word on what Reid and the rest of the Senate Dems are going to do about this?

  • I think this strategy will indeed fire up the far-right, because it will make them realize how much is at stake, so it will get them out to vote even if they are discouraged about how things have gone lately. On the other hand, I don’t see how this strategy could possibly work well with middle-of-the-road voters and independents, who, I think, will be disgusted by it, given the seriousness of all the other problems that aren’t getting addressed. On the whole, it would seem to be a net loss for the republicans. The response of the Democrats should be to keep talking up both Republican failures and possible Democratic solutions that the Republicans are ignoring.

  • If there was ever a strategy that begged for the official roll-out of the Republican’t label, this surely is it. Its a sign!

  • I fail to see how the gay marriage ban amendment, which every news outlet has reported will not pass, will benefit the Repubs. If the Repubs control both the House, Senate and White House and it still won’t pass, who’s to blame? This will only make the religious right realize that their pet politicians can’t get anything done. This might make sense in some strange Fristian way, but it sounds more like stabbing their party in the back.

    The rest of the agenda? …Sounds like packing dynamite onto the Titanic to make sure it goes down. The Dems need to jump all over this crap to their news outlets at home.

  • Actually, this business about the defense appropriations bill is getting pretty tiresome, after watching the House play with it for-bloody-ever like they did. Of course, it matters to me that there is something in it that I helped write and have pushed and organized popular support for among the members of my hobby, to get the @#$%$#@!! aerospace companies to lay off this “give us a cut of your profits” licensing they are pulling on the scale model industry – such as Northrop who now owns what used to be Grumman wanting licensing fees for producing models of World War II airplanes Grumman made. It’s a small hobby, profits are small, the gross profits of the biggest model company in the world wouldn’t finance Boeing’s annual stockholder party, but the underemployed otherwise-unemployables in their legal departments have to find some way to justify their existence. We put in a nice little amendment that says they can’t do this for designs “the people already paid for” when our government ordered the originals.

    A small but important item when it comes to the activities that keep yours truly off the streets and out of trouble. 🙂

    But it really is unconscionable that this Defense appropriations bill, which has been trying to chug along toward passage since last frickin’ November already has been held hostage to all this Republican bullshit, when it contains things like paying for armor for the troops, an amendment to end the government’s ability to pursue wounded soldiers for the price of the gear that was cut off them when they were hit, and a few other important things. Things beyond paying off the pinstriped Congress-fellating pimps in aerospace who don’t even like airplanes anymore. Believe it or not, there was once a day when the people who ran airplane companies knew how to fly and actually loved airplanes – what a concept! – that’s why we used to be able to design good ones, rather than the spare-parts-flying-in-formation that are the F-18, an airplane that has yet to meet the original specs issued for that design 30 years ago, or the F-22, America’s answer to the hordes of Soviet airplanes supporting the Warsaw Pact in its drive through the Fulda Gap. (Did you hear about the F-22 that landed at Andrews AFB last month and the pilot couldn’t open the canopy, since the software to run the lifts was “buggy,” so they had to call in the local fire department to saw through the canopy, which will cost a million dollars to replace and another million to repaint the thing where they stepped on it and scuffed it? And this is an airplane we are going to use in combat???)

    /rant

  • This type of activity is the founding idea of the Republicants since the ’94 election: abandon policy in favor of division that energizes the base. See abortion, tax policy, foreign policy, insertion of religion into government, etc. For a good history of this party policy and many more examples, read Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”.

    Personally, I just don’t find this type of news interesting anymore. It’s been clear that the Replicants have had no interest in governing for the past 15 years.

  • “So, during a war, the Senate Republican leadership would rather spend three days debating an anti-gay constitutional amendment — that they know isn’t going to pass — than finish negotiations on a Defense authorization bill.” – – – CB

    And with this mere handful of words, the world may now be shown that the Republikanner Party … oops … I meant, “Republican’t Party” … is SOFT ON NATIONAL DEFENSE!!!

    Thank you, Billie-Joe-Jim-Bob Frist; you’ve just handed the Democratic Party the United States Senate….

  • Republicans in Congress seem to have adopted the philosophy of too many American executives in big corporations: when you reach the top, it’s time to put in place a five-year personal enrichment program; everything else is irrelevant.

    How many Republicans will lose their seats this year and how many will be working as lobbyists or doing consultant work for right wing think tanks a year from now?

  • The Republicans are a party in suicide-mode right now. I truly believe the elitest, globalists masters in charge of the two-parties are planning for the Democrats to regain control of Congress in November. We are sure hearing a lot about that possibility in the “mainstream” media these days. The GOP – apart from those House Republicans taking an ethical stand against amnesty for illegal aliens – is probably under orders to make themselves look as stupid and divisive as possible, in order to overcome the substantial and lasting anger many voters have toward the Democratic Party. Seriously, why would such presumably-intelligent men and women be so dumb? Bill Frist, one of 22 Republicans who helped the outright-treasonous Senate “Immigration Reform” bill pass, is playing those Americans who support his party for fools, much in the same manner as the phony-conservative George W. Bush. The rest of us see right through these slimebags.

    Things are going terribly wrong in this country, and issues such as gay marriage and flag burning will not register with most Americans – apart from the Zionist Christians – who are struggling just to get by. Not in 2006, when we’ve seemed to have woken up a bit from the post-911 haze that allowed the imbecile Dubya to be “re-elected.” They see an arrogant, out-of-control Congress that is doing anything but working for their constitutents. Bush sure as hell is not going to gain any ground by embracing a constitutional ban on gay marriage, when the bodybags keep returning from Iraq and the economy continues to tank.

  • “Well, that’s certainly among my more embarrassing typos, now isn’t it?” – CB

    It looks to me like this is more of a Freudian slip than a typo. Mainly because I tend to do the same thing a lot. Now that I’m on the lookout for it, I can fix ’em easier, and save the really good ones.

  • Off of CNN (discussing the gay marriage debate): “I don’t believe there’s any issue that’s more important than this one,” said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. “I think this debate is very healthy, and it’s winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we’re going to show real progress.”

    Yessir, No issue more important. Never mind that most Americans are struggling to fill their gas tanks, or that the majority of people in this country wants an end to the war in Iraq. Forget about the fact that ridiculous budget cuts are hurting students, the homeless, the elderly and the security of certain Northeast cities. Clearly the President and his cronies is focused on getting this country back on track.

    Doesn’t it make you want to bang your head against a wall in disgust?

    • Comments are closed.