Thursday, January 31, 2008

A Plague on Both Their Houses (different houses this time)!

I am glad to see that I am not the only one upset over Senators who assign more priority to campaigning than to doing the people's business on the Senate floor. As reported in the ABC News Political Radar blog, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a lot of heavy lifting to do between now and February 15:

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Senate Democrats held a special meeting Thursday to decide on two bills both with a deadline of February 15. In between now and then...is Super Tuesday.

No final decisions on either the FISA update bill or the economic stimulus package were reached, but afterwards on the Senate floor Majority Leader Harry Reid implied there won't be action on either item till next week. Not only does he need to woo Republican support to get the 60 votes needed to pass versions the Democrats prefer on both matters, but he needs to marshal his troops. Specifically, those conspicuously absent from the Senate with a case of '08.

Wolf goes on to note that it is not just the absence of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that undermines Reid's strategic planning in preparation for these votes; having made his declaration of faith, Ted Kennedy is also out there on the campaign trail. It is unclear how those of us who vote on Super Tuesday can make the point that such negligence is intolerable. Boycotting the primary would probably be counterproductive. Maybe it will just take a few courageous souls showing up at rallies across the country and finding the right moment to shout, "Why aren't you in Washington doing your job?" If that kind of heckling makes it to the evening news, it might have some effect!

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