July 25, 2007
Congress: Who's Doing Nothing Now?
What goes around, comes around. Increasingly, that's the theme radiating from the halls of the 110th Congress, where Republicans -- ousted from power in the 2006 midterm elections -- are trotting out the "Do-Nothing Congress" label that got them into so much trouble last year.
The Senate Republican Conference put a new twist on the smear, calling the 110th the "Post Office Congress." The name is a bit of a head-scratcher (is it because the Democrats are "going postal" on the Bush administration?), but actually refers to what lawmakers have been able to accomplish thus far: the renaming of about 20 post offices around the country.
Not exactly bumper-sticker material.
Democratic efforts to force a change of course in Iraq have famously gone nowhere, and the bipartisan effort to pass immigration reform went up in smoke after months of wrangling. To be fair, blame for the latter failure was largely laid at the feet of conservative members, not the Democratic leadership. And while Democrats have been unable to move the president on the war issue, they have picked up some key allies from the Republican side.
But what of the ambitious "100 Hours Agenda" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., touted after her party swept onto Capitol Hill? Well, the House did succeed in passing many of the measures Pelosi had planned, but the only one to gain traction in the Senate was the minimum wage increase, which took effect yesterday amid much Democratic fanfare.
Meanwhile, much time and effort has also been spent on congressional investigations into the firing of U.S. attorneys, the 2003 CIA leak case, the domestic wiretapping program and other alleged misdeeds by the Bush administration. But the endless hearings, subpoenas and citations have generally been designed to make up for the previous six years of unchecked executive power, not to move forward with bold new initiatives or, as so loudly promised during the '06 election, real change in the direction of the country.
With just a week and a half left before lawmakers head home for a planned monthlong August recess, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are expected to push for passage of several key initiatives promised last year, such as ethics reform and a bill to enact the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. The fear is that, without any major victories to point to, the Democrats' high-profile failures on hot-button issues like Iraq and immigration will make for a not-so-pleasant summer vacation.
But hey, if those last-ditch efforts fail, the proud members of the 110th Congress can always tell the folks back home that they were the ones to rename the Leonard W. Herman Post Office.
