10/03: Congress Assailed
Category: Politics
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
"THEY SPEND drunkenly, they fail at oversight and they can't stop the administration from abusing detainees or tapping phones. But never call the members of Congress powerless: Yesterday, in the exalted name of anti-terrorism, the Senate rebelled against its Republican leadership and joined the House in a vote to prevent a company based in a moderate, friendly Arab country from making a minor investment in the United States." So begins the lead editorial in this morning's Washington Post.
The Post's two Davids, Broder and Ignatius, also weigh in with somber assessments of this as Congressional folly, calling the episode anti-Arab "nativist sentiment" and "a frenzy of Muslim-bashing disguised as concern about terrorism." All three of these articles are must reads. Watching C-SPAN this morning (it is "Brian Lamb Friday;" my favorite day of the week), I was stunned, as was Brian, at the virtually unanimous bipartisan condemnation on the editorial pages of America's leading newspapers aimed at the craven Congress and the misplaced popular vigilance. Even the New York Times (not linked), which egged on its home-state senators and congressman and fanned the flames of this imbroglio, did not celebrate this "victory;" they merely shifted the subject to the broader question of port security.
One more point to make: the Bush administration, often characterized as unreasonably stubborn, demonstrates once again that they have the capacity to fold quickly and unabashedly when the political odds are clearly stacked against them. Of course, much needs to be said for their maladroitness in handling this episode. Broder is right that this is much bigger than this one issue. Are the troops in full mutiny? Is the prospect of Republican civil war and mayhem in Washington finally upon us?
On the other hand, we should also note that in the midst of losing on Dubai and Cheney's hunting accident, the USA Patriot Act reauthorization passed and the NSA surveillance unpleasantness reached compromise. Those are much bigger victories for the Bush administration.
More later...
The Post's two Davids, Broder and Ignatius, also weigh in with somber assessments of this as Congressional folly, calling the episode anti-Arab "nativist sentiment" and "a frenzy of Muslim-bashing disguised as concern about terrorism." All three of these articles are must reads. Watching C-SPAN this morning (it is "Brian Lamb Friday;" my favorite day of the week), I was stunned, as was Brian, at the virtually unanimous bipartisan condemnation on the editorial pages of America's leading newspapers aimed at the craven Congress and the misplaced popular vigilance. Even the New York Times (not linked), which egged on its home-state senators and congressman and fanned the flames of this imbroglio, did not celebrate this "victory;" they merely shifted the subject to the broader question of port security.
One more point to make: the Bush administration, often characterized as unreasonably stubborn, demonstrates once again that they have the capacity to fold quickly and unabashedly when the political odds are clearly stacked against them. Of course, much needs to be said for their maladroitness in handling this episode. Broder is right that this is much bigger than this one issue. Are the troops in full mutiny? Is the prospect of Republican civil war and mayhem in Washington finally upon us?
On the other hand, we should also note that in the midst of losing on Dubai and Cheney's hunting accident, the USA Patriot Act reauthorization passed and the NSA surveillance unpleasantness reached compromise. Those are much bigger victories for the Bush administration.
More later...
