[Politics] Congressional Majority Changes Very Little in Washington

While the Democratic majority in Congress is certainly shifting debate and bringing about a new legislative focus, all of which this country desparately needed after six years with Republicans ruling Congress and the White House, it seems as though politics as usual in Washington is making so much of these changes completely moot. The Iraq spending bill working its way through the Senate this week, which provides $100 billion for the troops while also giving a September 2008 deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, is also laden with that old Washington additive: pork. CNN has a good report on this, though some may argue that it is a bit biased. So, for a completely opposing view you can read the The State's opinion (at least you know I'm being fair about it. Also, according to Pat Kiernan during NY1's "In the Papers" segment, the New York Times had an article this morning detailing the pork in the bill, but I can't find it on the Times website).

The problem is that if Demmocrats wish to bring about real change, that change cannot just be in the form of new bills, it must also aim right at the heart of the underhanded politics of Washington. As the CNN article briefly points out, in Washington, political allies will often vote as a group to support each other's state's pet projects in such emergency spending bills. It's a bit of quid pro quo that even an illiterate person with a U.S. Government textbook can point out. But it is exactly what the Democrats need to change if they want to be taken seriously (and traquilize the Republican attack dogs).

For years, the Democrats have been labeled as the cannibalizing party that defeats itself. For years that was an unfortunate fact, but right now, in Congress the Democrats have the power to stand up to politics as usual. Ironically, doing so will come from standing up to each other and eliminating extraneous spending that right-wing pundits can easily point to as the typical tax-and-spend trade of Democrats. What is so disturbing about this is that this bill represents the issue that is at the heart of why the Democrats were elected in the first place: mismanagement of the war in Iraq. And now, Republicans will easily point to the Democrat's bill as its own form of mismanagement.

This is stupid. If the Democrats want to be taken seriously on Iraq, they only have to do one thing: buck Washington politics and form a bill that deals with the one issue at hand, Iraq. I don't think it could be any more obvious that if you want to pass some riders and pork this is the one and only bill NOT to do that with. Will the folks in Washington ever learn?