The Democratic Majority?
This Douglas Turner column nails Harry Reid and the Democrats hard. Mr. Turner is especially of the Democrats who are missing vote after vote:
Day to day, there is no Democratic majority.
One of the no-shows, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has missed 80 percent of the roll calls since Labor Day, including 17 of the last 20 votes since Oct. 25. Obama’s presidential campaign wisely emphasizes the man’s “wisdom” and his “coolness” rather than his experience. Freshman Obama has zero experience in Washington, missing 34.2 percent of the roll calls since the party took power 11 months ago.
More critically, Reid’s committee structure on two pressing issues is in near collapse because of the absences of Banking Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden of Delaware. With the subprime loan crisis pushing the nation’s economy toward recession, one would think Dodd’s panel would be on top of it. However, Dodd’s banking panel Web site lists no hearing touching the subject since last spring. The committee has not even held a business meeting since Oct. 17.
This year, Dodd has missed 143 of 415 roll calls, or was AWOL on 34.5 percent of the votes, 84 percent since the start of October. Dodd has received plenty of money from big banking interests, and he has said lots about subprime loans on television, but he has done next to nothing.
I’m not upset that the Democratic Senate isn’t getting things done for the most part. No news in this instance means they aren’t screwing things up worse. It’ll leave that much less damage to undo when Republicans reclaim the majority, whenever that happens.
John Kerry missed lots of votes in 2004 but he was the nominee. When Dodd and Biden are still missing votes is incomprehensible. They’re pretenders who don’t have a prayer of becoming the nominee. Their campaigning like they still are serious candidates smacks of arrogance and/or elitism. It certainly isn’t something that real people would condone or understand.
Here’s the most damning information in the article:
Number two among the delinquents is Biden. He has been somewhere else on 35.9 percent of the votes this year. With all the controversy over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, Biden’s Foreign Relations Committee has not bothered to convene for a business meeting since Oct. 31.
Sen. Biden often thunders about how President Bush doesn’t have a clue on foreign policy. How would Biden know since he isn’t showing any interest in foreign policy himself? The guy is a pomposity personified. His over-inflated image of himself is legendary. Sen. Biden’s pomposity is only surpassed by his incredibly average list of accomplishments.
A year ago, Democrats were riding high after their election victories. They’ve since proven that they aren’t capable of doing the basics of governance. Compare that with the Republicans when they took control in 1995. People will disagree with what they passed but they had a significant-sized list of accomplishments when they faced re-election. Barring a major miracle, Democrats will have a microscopic list of accomplishments.
Rest assured that the voters will notice that lack of productivity.
Technorati Tags: Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Do Nothing Congress, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
December 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Practice what you preach. Dems want ‘lack of motivation’ from their constituents to make their life easier. More dependence. Pomposity to say the least!
December 12th, 2007 at 9:38 am
And the arrogance of power: “We must be in power, after all, we are smarter than they are, we know whats good for them: more of us telling them what to do, where to, when to, and why and how to pay their taxes. Taxes that we get to spend for them, to make the world village safe for our us.”