{"id":9404,"date":"2006-12-21T09:44:42","date_gmt":"2006-12-21T14:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9404.html"},"modified":"2006-12-21T09:44:42","modified_gmt":"2006-12-21T14:44:42","slug":"no-honeymoon-for-congressional-dems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/no-honeymoon-for-congressional-dems\/","title":{"rendered":"No honeymoon for congressional Dems?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s see, Dems won their congressional majorities last month, and they’ll start actually governing next month. Now seems like a fair time for CNN to start speculating<\/a> about “Do-Nothing Dems,” right?<\/p>\n

A December 19 report on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight featured the graphic “Do-Nothing Dems?” But, as the report noted, Democrats will not actually assume control of Congress for a little over two weeks.<\/p>\n

In the report, CNN correspondent Lisa Sylvester asserted that, despite Democratic campaign pledges to “implement all of the 9-11 Commission recommendations,” Democrats are “now conceding that’s harder than they thought.” But rather than showing a clip of a Democrat presumably affirming Sylvester’s lead-in, CNN cut to Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two points. First, let’s look at the substantive argument that Dems are somehow reluctant to “implement all of the 9\/11 Commission recommendations.” It’s become a common talking point for congressional Republicans lately, and it’s wrong.<\/p>\n

As Nico recently explained<\/a>, the Commission called on Congress to overhaul the congressional intelligence system, but offered two options for achieving this goal: “[E]ither a joint committee on the old model of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy or a single committee in each house combining authorizing and appropriating committees.”<\/p>\n

Nancy Pelosi and the incoming Democratic leadership have decided to implement the latter as part of the overhaul. This isn’t an example of Dems failing to fulfill a campaign pledge; it’s the exact opposite<\/i>. Put it this way: the 9\/11 Commission gave Congress two options and asked lawmakers to pick one. Republicans rejected both; Dems agreed to implement one. The GOP — and, apparently, CNN — believe that somehow Dems are shirking their duties. It’s bizarre.<\/p>\n

And second, the spin of the report is wildly unfair.
\n
\nIf the 110th Congress won’t even be sworn in for another two weeks, isn’t just a little premature for CNN to start running “Do-Nothing Dems?” graphics? Can we not wait until they actually take office before denouncing the failures they are yet to commit?<\/p>\n

Indeed, it’s not just the 9\/11 Commission report; CNN reported that congressional Dems may fall short in changing Iraq policy, lobbying reform, improving Medicare’s prescription drug program, and pay-go budget rules. And after all this speculation, CNN turned to a Republican congressman, instead of a congressional Dem who might have been able to defend the party against the speculative accusations.<\/p>\n

I, perhaps naively, expected congressional Dems to get a bit of a new-majority honeymoon. After 12 years in the minority, Dems are about to change how Congress operates, and I had hoped the media would at least give them a chance.<\/p>\n

I did not expect CNN — not Fox News, mind you, but CNN — to start speculating about “Do-Nothing Dems” two weeks before Pelosi even picks up the gavel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s see, Dems won their congressional majorities last month, and they’ll start actually governing next month. Now seems like a fair time for CNN to start speculating about “Do-Nothing Dems,” right? A December 19 report on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight featured the graphic “Do-Nothing Dems?” But, as the report noted, Democrats will not actually assume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}