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Why the 110th failed:
1. Obstructionism by the Republicans
2. Nancy Pelosi
3. Harry Reid
The presidential race is still a horse race but we can be pretty sure that the Democrats will control both houses, possibly with a super majority. I could say with confidence, that those on both sides of the fence would agree that the last congress was an abysmal failure. Though I'm guessing republicans are not going to like my first reason as much as they like the second and third.
Obstructionism by the Republicans:
Conservatives boast about the "success" of their strategy in discrediting the new majority. As Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) put it, "The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far, it's working for us."How is it working? It's dragging the reputation of the Congress down to the level of the failed president. Conservatives lie in the road of progress and then complain that nothing is moving.
The failure of the current congress was by design. Now whether or not the price of oil spike was intentionally part of that design is a debate for another article.
Filibusters in my opinion have been made too easy. In my opinion if you want to filibuster a bill then you better grab a phone book to read and you better get somebody else to read it while you take a leak but I guess that's not going to happen.
Now democrats have used filibusters as well, we all remember the threat of the "Nuclear option". Republicans though, used it so much this congress, they on a couple of occasions used it against themselves on "accident". This besides bush is why they will lose this election.
Solution
See, the filibuster tactic was crafty. If a bill doesn't hit the floor then the media coverage of it is minimal and its not covered on CSPAN. CSPAN is a wonderful tool and I would recommend highly that more start using it. The Democrats even have started trying to hide their actions by manipulating when things get debated. We'll talk more about that in reasons 2 and 3. The filibuster is a necessary evil but we the citizens (these crafty buggers seem to forget they work for) need to start paying attention before they have the chance of shutting us out.
I'm pretty new to the vine but have found it a very useful tool for discussing issues. So I'm going to start publishing bills before they hit the floor, here on the vine. I've got a job and couple of infants so I may need some help with this.
But, if we can discuss issues before they have a chance to be tabled then we can contact our obstructionist representatives and tell them to quit their poop. The business of America is more important that petty political games.
Before you brush this off as not that important a task for all of us to take on here's a short list of filibustered items this congress.
-- Providing health insurance to millions more kids.
-- Empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.
-- Taking away handouts to Big Oil so we can invest in renewable energy.
-- Repealing the effective ban on embryonic stem cell research.
-- Investing more in health research.
-- Making it easier for workers to join unions.
-- Investing more in fighting poverty and training workers.
2. Nancy Pelosi
Now before I go into why she needs to be replaced as Speaker of the House, I would first like to congratulate her on what she did accomplish. She succesfully herded the kittens. The DNC tent has always been big and inviting and this fact was used effectively by the Republicans. They marched in lockstep and plowed right over the Dems in the house, until Pelosi came along. This strong "San Fransico liberal" actually got the Dems to work in more unison than they did before. But that wasn't enough and she did it by duplicating the partisan politics of the Republicans. Partisan politics is the Rovian way and god knows we don't need any more of that.
The 2006 Congressional Race by most was viewed as a referendum to end the Iraq war. No matter how you feel about the war, its cost is a leading factor in the economic state we are in now. Hindsight is 20/20 but there are many different and more effective paths that we could have taken if the Democrats would have stood up to Bush.
Pelosi by taking Impeachment off the table, caving on FISA, the bailout, pretty much giving Bush whatever he wanted has not served the Democrats or the American People effectively. When it came to the bailout after the first rejection by the House due to a outpouring of response from the American people, the second one was ramrodded through after being pork filled in the Senate.
SOLUTION
The easy answer is replace her. Whether the failures were her fault or not, the damage has been done. The hard answer, with whom, I don't have an answer, and would appreciate input.
Between Nov. 5th and the first day of the new congress, we need to contact our Democratic representatives and voice our opinion. They would be more apt to act if there is a consensus on a viable replacement.
3. Harry Reid
I honestly can't say I know enough to comment on him, as a person, though I do thank him for his service. I do know he was too soft spoken to be effective as leader of the senate. (Sorry Palin, that's not the Vice Presidents job.) Most of my complaints about Pelosi, the blame can be rested on Reid as well. .
It was the Senate that passed a pork laden-ed Bailout bill. The debate was intentionally postponed until 4 pm, while the American people were busy watching Smallville and ER (or whatever). This bailout was a blank check that Reid and others in the senate were, in my opinion too lazy to work out a real solution. Handing a blank check to a man who at first wanted to be above the law. Paulson took over as CEO of Goldman Saks in 1999. At the time they had a debt load of 20 BILLION dollars, when he left to become our "saviour" they were left with a debt load of 100 BILLION dollars just 6 or so years later. And Reid figured, "Hey let him figure out how to spend 700 BILLION, and counting, of our future generations money." Even after, when the treasury department was asked "How did you come to this number?" answered, "Oh there was no data point, we just wanted to pick a really big number."
SOLUTION
I actually have an answer for this; Hillary Clinton. I may not agree with her on most of her policies but the woman is the original pit-bull in lipstick. She would be able to stand up to either McCain or Obama. (I'm thinking she would enjoy taking on the later)
This country is in an ungodly mess due to electing the president we would rather have a beer with. Its time to really start paying attention to everything that is going on in Washington. It would be nice to assume that our representatives will do their jobs since we pay them well and they get great perks. That is no longer the reality. They need to be reminded who their bosses are and we all need to make it a point to call or write them at least on a monthly basis.
Sources:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/record-breaking-obstruction-how-it-screwed-you
http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/1HowWellIsWarGoing071106.png
http://www.ourfuture.org/obstruction
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/24/treasury-large-number/
