No Checks, No Balance

The U.S. Congress is a disgrace to democracy

by Alan Bisbort

Source: Hartford Advocate, December 9, 2004.

The U.S. Congress is the most useless legislative body in the free world.

Historian Barbara Tuchman was hip to this as early as 1974, when she penned an op-ed for the New York Times called "Defusing the Presidency" (in her book Practicing History). It was written right after Pres. Nixon resigned, but her fears were that, because of the power of his office, he could have survived that scandal, as ugly as it would have been to the body politic.

"The American Presidency has become a greater risk than it is worth," wrote Tuchman. "The time has come to consider seriously the substitution of Cabinet government or some form of shared executive power."

While she feared the nearly unchecked power and secrecy of the presidency, what really concerned Tuchman was the sad state of the Congress. She wrote, "The Framers may have been the most intelligent and far-seeing political men ever to operate at one time in our history, but they could not foretell the decline of the Congress."

Indeed, in the 30 years since this was written, the situation has worsened. Each branch of government -- legislative, executive and judicial -- has some constitutionally structured means of preventing the other branches from abusing power, since all power, in theory, derives from We, the People. Yet, as never before, the three branches are working in collusion. The result is that the office of the presidency is accountable to no body, and the Constitution can be flouted, American people lied to and political enemies destroyed with nary a whimper from anyone in Washington. The Congress is now an assemblage of 535 yes-men and women, as unimpressive a group of lackies as has ever disgraced the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol. While one need only pick a week, any week, to confirm this, the past week has been particularly instructive.

Take Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, next in line of succession, after the VP, to the presidency. Hastert, a career apparatchik inserted to cauterize the wound left by Newt Gingrich, embodies the uselessness of Congress. He recently vowed that he'd only allow bills to be considered that were backed by "a majority of the majority party." In other words, even legislation that would benefit all Americans, help kids, seniors, the poor, the infirm, etc., would be killed before even getting a hearing if Republicans were not its prime movers. This raw, and apparently shameless, power brokering and lack of moral vision is now the GOP standard. If Democrats weren't such spineless wimps, this would be a disastrous strategy.

Or take Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn) whose mere presence in the austere body is an insult to the memory of the man whose seat he occupies, Paul Wellstone, killed in a plane crash. Last week, Coleman wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he demanded that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan resign because, well, it's not clear what was Norm's point but his ostensible reason is the corruption of the UN's Oil for Food program in Iraq -- corruption Annan has appointed Paul Volcker to independently investigate -- it's part of a larger strategy, dictated by Karl Rove, to demonize the UN for blocking Bush's rush to war.

Or take Tom DeLay ... please. Republicans get worked up about a man of integrity like Annan, yet turn their beaks when a real crook like the Bug Man soils their nest. DeLay, the subject of a probe by a Texas prosecutor for illegal political contributions by corporations in which three of his associates have been indicted, has such Stalinesque power that even his boss Hastert is scared of him. Thus, the GOP caucus met in secret to decide whether DeLay keeps his majority whip post should he be indicted. Natch, they overwhelmingly said it's A-OK. Connecticut's GOP legislators, according to Chris Shays, all voted against waiving the rule. For doing the right thing, Rep. Rob Simmons has already been "punished." Transportation dollars for his district have been cut and a new sub base in Groton may get the axe. Watch if Simmons doesn't get back in line now.

Congress also wants to waive the filibuster rule for confirmation of federal judges while refusing to address a record budget deficit, record trade deficit, crashing U.S. dollar, 45 million Americans without health insurance, loss of jobs, lack of flu vaccine, climate change, war, more war and...

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reprinted from The Hartford Advocate