Contempt for democracy
Senate Republicans throw a temper tantrum and gum up the machinery
Contempt for democracy
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Earlier this week, several high-ranking military commanders, all of them currently assigned to U.S. Pacific Command, Strategic Command, and U.S. Forces Korea, boarded planes at their overseas posts and flew half way around the world so that they could testify in Washington yesterday at a long-scheduled readiness hearing conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The generals arrived on time, only to discover that they had wasted their time. The Senate hearing had been canceled.
Meanwhile, in preparation for a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, witnesses from the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Government Accountability Office had cleared their schedules to testify yesterday about an issue that's crucial to the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan: our training of the national Afghan police, and the need for greater oversight.
But this Senate hearing was canceled, too.
Meanwhile, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee was conducting a session yesterday morning on a sensitive issue - homeless military veterans, and what can be done to help them - when the chairman was informed that the session had to be shut down, pronto, scarcely an hour after it had been convened.
These cancellations and disruptions (among others) were not precipitated by bad weather, or a power outage, or a busted water main, or a national emergency. They happened because the Republicans were behaving like toddlers.
Having failed to get their way on health reform, the losers threw a tantrum and refused to let the grownups get on with the everyday business of governing - actually for the second straight day, thus confirming the recent vow by John "Country First" McCain that there "will be no cooperation for the rest of the year."
It's very easy to gum up the Senate machinery out of sheer spite. By tradition, senators agree each day, via bipartisan "unanimous consent," to schedule their committee hearings throughout the day. But if somebody refuses to give their consent, a characteristically arcane Senate rule kicks in: no hearings can be conducted after 2 p.m., and all morning hearings have to be suspended two hours after the Senate has convened.
Senators have rarely invoked this rule, hewing instead to the daily courtesy of unanimous consent. That's the tradition, for both parties; way back in 1960, one political expert called it "institutional patriotism." More recently, Senate scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote wistfully of that bipartisan era: "Senators were intensely loyal to the Senate as an institution; they identified first as senators, rather than as partisans or through their ideology."
But this current Republican crew apparently has no qualms about trashing the place, even if it means undercutting military commanders and Afghan trainers and homeless veterans - all of whom they profess to care so much about. (If the situation was reversed, and the Democrats were pulling this kind of stunt, the GOP would have already assailed the Democrats for being "against the troops.") So why is the GOP pulling this stunt? As the Democratic chairwoman of the Homeland Security subcommittee lamented yesterday, "I don't get it."
Actually, it's not so hard to get. Grinding all this Senate business to a halt is a way for the party insiders to bond with their unhinged outsiders; it's the polite, parliamentary equivalent of screaming impolite epithets at Democratic House members.
Forcing the cancellation of various Senate military hearings, in the service of a hissy fit, is not remotely as visceral as vandalizing various congressional and Democratic party offices, or leaving death threats on a congressman's voicemail, or sending a picture of a hangman's noose to a black congressman, or cutting the propane gas line at the home of a congressman's brother, or threatening the families of congressmen, but it's precisely the same in one key respect. It's a contempt for democracy.
tom: as to the 85% of dollars, I believe that most insurance companies spend less than that percentage on actual medical benefits. the 83.3% was only for MA providers... In any case, agreed, thay may repeal those cuts. IF they do, or even try to, then yes, will will criticize them for it. MA has been a failure from the get-go, and not cutting those costs will add even more to the deficit. In summation, they SHOULD let the benefit cuts begin as scheduled.— still_independent- You liberals!!!!!!— Rabe56
- tom: sorry for the stutter.... "I will criticize ..."— still_independent
- TOM: We'll see where this goes, and I'm looking forward to the spin Conse 'Pubs put on the events ahead. I'll bet you'll blame the guy that gets buried for having the nerve to say one word about the threats. Yep, hazmat team at Weiner's office is made up, crying wolf, right?— Talvenada
Comment removed.- TOM: Everything is equal, and both sides do it. No big deal!! 10 Dem Reps. get death threats (10), 6 in-face slurs to Dem Reps. (3 black, 1 Mex., 1 gay & 1 baby-killer white) (16), 1 spit on Dem Rep. (17), 1 coffin on lawn (18), 1 white powder (19), 1 bullet thru window (20), 6 bricks thru windows (26), 1 gas line cut (27), and 1 dead-man comment from Boehner (28). Cantor gets death threats & bullet thru window (2). 28 to 2 is equal, and Dems crying wolf about nothing, trying to claim they're the victim. Only 28 events in 6 days doesn't make anybody a victim unless they're a Conse 'Pub.— Talvenada
- Comment removed.
- *** 1. What big government entitlement program has ever: • Reduced the deficit? • Only cost what it says it will and lowered the costs of goods and services? • Improved quality? • Enhanced efficiency? • Decreased delays? • Fostered more choice and competition? • Featured competent bureaucracy? • Operated with honest accounting? • Avoided fraud, abuse, waste, maddening red tape, and higher taxes? Why should we trust that Obamacare will do all that? Obamacare’s deceptive budget cooking was described in one instance by Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) as "a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of."— NEPhilly
- 2. Why does Obamacare exempt some in Congress and the White House from having to buy the same health care plans that the law forces other Americans to purchase: President Obama, Vice President Biden, Cabinet members, top White House staff, congressional committee staff and leadership staff, such as those who work for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) tried to close this loophole, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wouldn’t even let it come up for a vote. As Grassley says, “It’s only fair and logical that top administration officials, who fought so hard for passage of this overhaul of America’s health care system, experience it themselves. If it’s as good as promised, they’ll know it first-hand. If there are problems, they’ll be able to really understand them, as they should.” http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/25/jon-kraushar-obamacare-questions-medicare-congress-white-house/— NEPhilly
- Comment removed.
- Tal, first, according to Politico "The coffin was from a prayer vigil, and protesters say that the coffin symbolized babies who would be aborted due to the health care law and was not a threat to Carnahan." It was, as pointed out by Politico, placed in front of his house and not on his lawn. WOW, left over from a prayer vigil...those darn Christians. The bullet thru the window was at Cantor's office. Are you saying liberals make death threats? Still no evidence the slurs happened. Pelosi et al walked thru that crowd hoping something would happen. When nothing did, they made it up. One of the aides was videotaping the walk, where is the tape with the slurs recorded? A threat was left on the voicemail of Rep Jean Schmidt (Conse Pub-Ohio), which is not on your list. As for the bricks thru the windows, I am holding judgement until it is shown it is not a repeat of Denver, when a Democrat operative threw a brick thru the Democrat party headquarters and tried to blame it on conservatives. How many of the threats against Stupak were before he switched his vote, when he said his life was a living Hades. One thing Democrats have shown themselves able to do is stage events to appear as victims. Funny, as I stated before, there was no outrage at the threats against Bush, no outrage at the attacks on the AIG execs who received bonus's, no outrage at the hate speech directed at Palin. And I love your count. Maybe you should start a Tea Party questionable action list.— tom - wilmington, de
- Oh, my internet life twin. I having trouble understanding what you are trying to express. Is it that all points should be conceded to the virtuous liberal line of thinking due to some threats and intimidation on the part of a few bad apples towards the democrats? Is this what you are telling us? Please tell me you are not hanging your chances in the midterms on these incidents.— Alvenada
- This line from Tom needs to be reposted. Lets keep things in perspective Tal Venada. Shall we? " One thing Democrats have shown themselves able to do is stage events to appear as victims. Funny, as I stated before, there was no outrage at the threats against Bush, no outrage at the attacks on the AIG execs who received bonus's, no outrage at the hate speech directed at Palin. And I love your count."— Alvenada
- Republican senator Coburn introduced an amendment preventing convicted sexual predators from getting Viagara, Cialis or other similar meds from the government plans. The Dems voted this down 57-42 after Max Baucus called it a trick, saying the healthcare bill was a serious bill and amendments such as Coburn's were only meant to slow the process down. So, Democrat Senators voted to reject the amendment. Now they can run on that stance this until November too. Modern day Democrat party...defender of predator reproductive rights.— tom - wilmington, de
- Comment removed.
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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