Time for the Yellow Dog to Wag His Tail: What the Democratic Congress Has Done Right So Far

[McCamy Taylor]

It is hard to be a Democratic in America. Howard Kurtz blames you for not stopping Bush and the Republicans who controlled Congress in 2003 from leading the nation into the Iraq War, 'cause everyone knows that God made the Democratic Party the party of morals and values and responsibility and the Republicans are the Party of taking bribes and making their buddies rich and helping big business get bigger. If Democrats control even one house of Congress by a single vote, that is all it takes for them use their super, patented Democratic powers of goodness and light to right injustice and make the world safe for democracy, correct? And if they control two house of Congress, well then we ought to be singing in the streets like a Busby Berkeley musical. Never mind if the Dems are low on cash and the corporate media is telling lies about them behind their backs and the courts are stacked with federalists and the FBI is wiretapping their phones and planting evidence in their freezers. The left always triumphs if it is really right.

I have bitched and moaned as much as anyone at DU about what the Democratic Congress has not done. My main gripe is that they did not file articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney in January in order to force W. to start troop withdrawals from Iraq. However, just because they did not have the wisdom to do this, that does not mean that they have been sitting on their asses doing nothing. The Democratic Congress has accomplished a lot.

Most important of all, they have cleaned house in the Department of Justice. This was the number one priority for the new Congress, as far as I was concerned, last November. A nation can not be free if those who keep the laws are criminals. Under Gonzo, the DOJ had turned into Bush-Cheney's private goon squad/election theft racket. Alberto Gonzales was probably Bush's most valuable asset, even more important than Karl Rove, because he had the power to anoint the actions of administration officials as "legal." Now who will call torture "not torture"? Who will oversee Gitmo? Who will give blanket approval to Voting Rights Act busting state legislation?

By revealing the political nature of the DOJ, Congress has called into question its political prosecutions of Democrats. Who knows how many more such prosecutions Karl Rove had planned this year and next, before the 2008 election? And how many prosecutions of private citizens and voter registration groups for "voter fraud" were planned as part of a voter suppression campaign. Look at where Karl Rove is. We owe that to Senator Leahy, Rep. Conyers and the Democratic Congress.

Now that Chairman Martin of the FCC is trying to copy Michael Powell's political tactics from the 2004 campaign, buying the cooperation of the corporate media with promises of federal media rule changes---changes that will particularly benefit News Corp. and Republican Billionaire Sam Zell's newly acquired Tribune Co.--- both houses of Congress are acted to put a stop to his bribery. This is almost as important as cleaning house in the Justice Department. A democracy can not be free if its press is not free.

If you need proof that the MSM can be bribed with federal media rule changes look back to 2003. In the spring, as Bush-Cheney were selling the nation their war of choice with Iraq, Michael Powell of the FCC was holding up a carrot before the MSM, tantalizing them with promises of federal media rule changes that two companies, News Corp and Viacom-CBS desperately needed if they were to avoid selling TV properties. The media--except for McClatchy---ignored the truth and reported the lies. We went to war. In June, 2003, the MSM got its reward. Later, a federal court struck down Powell's rule change. He promised to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, if Bush won in 2004. Kerry promised to reverse Powell's ruling. CBS shot Rather in the foot. Everyone called Kerry a waffler and covered the Swiftboat Vets like real news and ignored Ohio 2004 and suppressed the Ohio exit polls. And Powell repaid them by announcing in 2005, after Bush was sworn in, that there was never any intention of appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court. This betrayal initiated the bitterest year of news coverage of the Bush-Cheney administration, 2005, which included Downing Street Memos, Domestic Spying and Katrina.

Two years have passed. Another election is coming up. While we all know that the Democratic candidate should win next year's election, if the corporate media were to pull stunts like it did in 2004, calling Hillary a bitch, endlessly rehashing Vince Foster and Monica and Whitewater and declaring her GOP opponent the winner of every debate, all that could change. This is why Chairman Martin is recycling one of the Bush administration's most successful political campaign tactics. Only this time, Congress is in Democratic hands, and this time Congress has acted swiftly to stop the FCC from acting as a political tool of the RNC. This is what checks and balances are for.

The above is way too complicated to explain to the public in a sound bite. Democrats need to say "The Bush FCC is writing special media rules for Fox News and a Republican donor." That will be short and sour. Everyone will understand that it is unfair. Most of News Corp and the Tribune's rivals will not like it, so it might even get MSM coverage.

It is pitiful how Congress renewed the Patriotic Act before their break. However, there are plenty of voices speaking out for reason and freedom. Senator Dodd has become a champion of the Constitution against the Bush administration's violations of privacy. Rep. Conyers continues to work on Voting Rights issues. Rep. Kucinich continues to press for impeachment. Sen. Webb and Rep. Murtha champion the cause of soldiers. If we want to hear more from people like them, we need to praise them. (Note: do not give immunity to the telecoms, AT&T and Verizon. This is a GOP trap. They will taunt the Dems with it next fall, saying "You couldn't give health care to kids, but you could give immunity the special interests" in order to drive a wedge within the party).

Another thing that Congress is doing right, it continues to pass popular legislation, like the minimum wage hike and ethics reform. Other bills have passed by a wide, bipartisan margin, forcing Bush to veto them. Bills like Stem Cell Research, SCHIP, Higher Education Funding Reform. Every time the Democrats bring a populist bill like this to the table with bipartisan support only to have it knocked down by Bush, they tell the public "Give us a Democratic President who can work with us." The presence of Bush wannabe's---and one Ron Paul---in the Republican primary stable makes GOP presidential chances in 2008 look mighty dismal. If the Republicans do not succeed in co-opting the corporate media and casting a mountain of slanders on the Democratic nominee, their presidential candidate is toast, because voters will look back on this year and say to themselves "We do not want more vetoes. We want something to get done. We want health care. We want our troops to come home. "

As next fall's elections draw near, Congressional Republicans will sign on to more and more popular bills. The best thing that could happen to this party is if Bush keeps vetoing laws like there is no tomorrow. The Republican presidential candidates will find themselves between the base and a hard place. The important thing for the Democrats is to keep offering the same important, popular legislation over and over again. Like the Terminator. Let the public know that we are really serious about SCHIP. And about ending the war and bringing the troops home. If Bush finally stops vetoing, hurray! But it is not necessary that we win. It is more important that we show our determination.

Oh, and one other thing. The Dems in Congress need to get some pr. Dogs are allowed to bark once in a while, and there are ways to get the press to give you press, even if they don't really wanna. Main thing to stress---if the GOP controlled Congress, we would already have an Iran war resolution, which means a draft and higher gas prices. Now that is scarier than a whole bunch of terra-ists.

[LisaM]

1. I so agree about the vetos. They show Bush's true colors

If I were in Congress, I would send him one reasonable bill after another that he says he will veto. So what if he does? I hope he does. It shows his true colors. It does nothing but hurt Republicans. If it's shown that he is clearly denying the will of the people, I say, do it.

[opihimoimoi]

3. Yeah, me to...do it

k&r

[Basileus Basileon]

2. I'm happy to give you my first rec. nt

[Blue Shark]

4. Actually...

...though it isn't reported that way...

...a one seat majority in either house IS enough to do something.

...De-fund the war. Period.

...Issue contempt of congress subpeonas. Period.

...Refuse to allow any more BushCo inanity into law. Period.

...ad nauseum.

...The spineless though chose to enable rather than to defend the constitution.

[liberaltrucker]

5. This Yellow Dog's tail wags no more

The Dem leadership has failed us. Caving to President 24% time after time after time.....

While I appreciate your lengthy post and final conclusion, I'm afraid the Noble
Experiment known as the United States of America is soon to be relegated to the
history books. Future generations (if there are any) will compare us to all the
other failed empires in history who, frankly, wrote a check their military couldn't
cover. Mercifully, most of us will be dead before that happens. But I pray for
our progeny. May they find it in their hearts to forgive us.

[Perry Logan]

6. They also showed the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years

"President Bush's success rating in the Democratic-controlled House has fallen this year to a half-century low, and he prevailed on only 14 percent of the 76 roll call votes on which he took a clear position.

"So far this year, Democrats have backed the majority position of their caucus 91 percent of the time on average on such votes. That marks the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1728952&mesg_id=1728952
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002576765.html

Don't let the media rhetoric fool you. The Democrats have acquitted themselves quite well--especially given their bare majority in both houses, and a relentlessly obstructionist Republican minority.

And they worked very hard:
this 110th Congress has had more roll call votes this year than any other Congress in history, almost doubling the number under the previous Congress overseen by Boehner and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL):
The House last week held its 943rd roll call vote of the year, breaking the previous record of 942 votes, a mark set in 1978. The vote was on a procedural motion related to a mortgage foreclosure bill. When the House adjourned on Oct. 4 for the long weekend, the chamber had reached 948 roll call votes, putting Democrats on pace to easily eclipse 1,000 votes on the House floor in 2007.
Last year, the Republican controlled House held 543 votes, and for historical comparison, the last time there was a shift in power in Congress, Republicans held 885 roll call votes in 1995. The Senate, which has held 363 votes this year, isn’t on pace to break any records, but has already surpassed the 2006 Senate mark of 279 votes.
Much of the lack of progress can be traced back to obstructionism by conservatives. Approximately “1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes,” noted a JulyMcClatchy report. “If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes.”
It’s interesting that Boehner is criticizing the 110th Congress as doing nothing. After all, the House, under his leadership, met for just 101 days during the second session of the 109th Congress, setting the record “for the fewest days in session in one year since the end of World War II.”