What's the Point?

I guess congratulations are in order for our Congress... don't be shy, stand up and applaud, because they are currently on pace to set a standard probably never seen in this country's grand history. Yes, the 110th Congress may be about to set a record... for getting the least amount of work done of any Congress ever.

Okay, maybe congratulations may not be in order...

Name one thing the Congress has done since Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats took office. No, investigations don't count, nor do meaningless resolutions or the passing of bills that were doomed to be vetoed by President Bush. I want you to name one thing that has been passed by this Congress that has actually become law and bettered our lives.

The minimum wage hike. Okay, that's one... even though it took several months and lots of partisan bickering, and even though Democrats are still attacking Bush and his fellow Republicans for not passing the minimum wage bill THEY wanted. Name another...

Still waiting...

And it looks like we'll be waiting for quite a while, since Congress has now successfully nuked immigration reform. This may well have been a sad milestone, because I think it will unfortunately rank as the last compromise measure to be proposed in this Congress. The two parties are now far too polarized and far too politicized to vote for ANYTHING proposed by moderates from either their party or the oppostion. Nobody seemed to understand that this was the best we could do in terms of federal legislation, and that neither the conservatives' "kick them all out" policy nor the liberals' "amnesty for everyone" policy was ever going to get the required votes to pass. And Democrats were certainly not going to get behind a bill supported by President Bush in enough votes to allow him to win on a piece of legislation. So, the measure failed, and the partisanship began...

DNC Head Howard Dean immediately fired off this salvo: "Today's immigration vote is a reminder of why the American people voted Republicans out in 2006 and why they'll vote against them in 2008. After using the immigration issue to inflame people with divisive rhetoric, the Republican Party, led by President Bush, had neither the capital nor the political will to work with Democrats on a reasonable compromise that would have delivered on the promise of immigration reform."

Uhhh... WHAT? If this is really all the Republicans' fault, then why did 15 MEMBERS OF YOUR OWN PARTY vote against this? Had your party all gone for this compromise, it would have passed. You cannot blame the president for failing to come up with a "reasonable compromise" when the most reasonable compromise we could get, one Bush was behind, one that the majority of your party's senators was behind, one that all of your presidential contenders in the Senate (Biden, Clinton, Obama, and Dodd) voted for, didn't pass because your most liberal senators DIDN'T WANT THIS TO PASS. Among the nays in the Democratic caucus... Jon Tester and Jim Webb... two senators who you, Mr. Dean, got elected for the sole purpose of OPPOSING BUSH ON EVERYTHING.

Of course, the Congress then proceeded to do what a "do-nothing" Congress usually does after a debacle like this... they voted themselves a pay raise, then took a vacation. And what was the first thing on the docket upon the Congress' return this week? No, not any substantive legislation... the Senate vowed to once again try to revoke their authorization of the Iraq war or pull the troops out immediately, and the House started more investigations of the president and vice-president.

Here's where it gets worse... while the Congress was away, President Bush made, in my opinion, a very dumb move when he commuted the prison sentence of Scooter Libby. All along, the debate was going to be whether or not Bush would flat-out pardon Libby for his conviction. I predicted he would not, and indeed he has not, but saying, "Well... at least he didn't pardon him" sounds a little hollow right now. I don't know if the president now feels he has nothing to lose politically because he is a true "lame duck" now, or if he's just sick of enduring 6-plus years of politically-motivated attacks on him, but he has now decided to fight politics with politics, and all that has done is create what appears to be a political arms race between him and Vice President Cheney and the Democrats. Well, Cheney is flat-out ridiculous to begin with; that assertion that his office is not part of the executive branch is not laughable so much as it just makes you shake your head and wonder what is wrong with the guy... so he's making his own bed too, unfortunately. However, the president did not need to join him in this effort. Now, each day brings new headlines of stonewalling by the president followed by threats from the Congress.

Ironically, it seems the 23% Crowd are the ones who are getting the most excited out of this political escalation... and here I was thinking they preferred peace. After an all-too-brief "retirement" from public view, Cindy Sheehan came out of hiding and announced that she will run against Nancy Pelosi for her Congressional seat in 2008 if Pelosi does not introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. Of course (as usual), she doesn't say what she wants Bush impeached for, although my guess is she wants it to be for the war, which she still doesn't understand is NOT a high crime or misdemeanor. Unfortunately, Bush's altering of prison sentences and refusal to cooperate with investigations, in this politically charged atmosphere, may create just enough of a groundswell among Congressional Democrats to make them decide that they HAVE to impeach him. Impeachment is the little red button that the Democrats have that can blow everything sky-high, and in a game of brinksmanship such as this, you have to wonder how long things can escalate before the button gets pushed.

Especially when the 23% Crowd is well on their way to winning (and by that, I mean fixing) the war of opinions on impeachment. A USA Today-Gallup poll conducted just a few days ago showed 36% of Americans want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. A disturbing enough number on its own, but that's nothing compared to how the numbers are being just plain fixed in online polls from reputable news sources like MSNBC. Show enough Congressional Democrats a "big lie" like that and you'll get articles of impeachment in no time.

You might notice that I am blaming BOTH sides for this, and it's true, and it's always what I've believed. I want a Congress that does the right thing for the people who elected it, one that passes needed legislation to fix the problems facing this country, one that is not afraid to give a little to get a lot. I don't want a Congress that spends all of its time playing politics and none of its time actually SERVING THE PEOPLE. Alas, I think we have to accept that we're not going to get that from this Congress, and as I've theorized in the past, if this Congress does impeach the president, we may never get it from another Congress ever again.