hypocritexposer
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Democrats can blame themselves for gridlock
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February 16, 2010
BY STEVE HUNTLEY
Liberals looking for excuses for their failed agenda in Washington have turned their ire on the U.S. Senate, saying the world's premier deliberative body is broken.
A familiar refrain these days, especially from Democrats in the House, is that the Senate is where bills go to die. Left-wing members are up in arms because they've passed health-care, energy and jobs bills only to see them stall in the Senate. For example, the House approved cap-and-trade energy legislation in June but it's languishing in Senate purgatory.
This new focus on the Senate as the graveyard of worthy legislation is not to say that liberals have given up on their other excuse -- that it's the Republicans, constituting the party of no, who are blocking legislative progress.
These complaints are just two sides to the same coin -- Democrats believe the Senate is broken because Republicans use its rules to block left-wing bills. Exhibit A is the filibuster. Liberals claim Republicans have invoked it an unprecedented number of times in the current Congress. Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin has introduced a bill to reduce the vote required to end a filibuster.
You may recall that in 2005 when Republicans were in the majority and frustrated by Democratic filibusters against President Bush's judicial nominees, they talked of using the "nuclear option" to end the obstructionist tactic. But a bipartisan "Gang of 14" senators, with the GOP side led by John McCain, clawed out a compromise to avoid the political nuclear strike and its bitterly divisive political fallout.
Here is the real story about the current gridlock in Washington -- no willingness to compromise by Democrats. The Senate is not broken; it is performing a function the Founders intended -- subjecting the enthusiasms of the House to careful scrutiny. And the filibuster is serving its purpose of protecting the rights of the minority in Congress. Together they can help force compromise and bipartisanship. Republicans had to turn to the filibuster because Democratic leaders in Congress shut them out of sweeping legislation such as the health-care bill.
Even so, the GOP-party-of-no excuse for inaction is largely bogus. Until last month, Democrats had a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate to go with their House super-majority. They couldn't accomplish anything because they couldn't get moderate Democrats to sign on to the liberal program.
Left-wing Democrats saw the 2008 election of President Obama as a mandate for transformative change. In reality voters were rejecting Bush and turning to Obama to address the nation's economic crisis. Instead, taking Rahm Emanuel's famous advice, liberals saw the crisis as an opportunity to advance a big-government, big-spending agenda.
The voters rebelled. The Tea Party movement sprang up like a spring flower and blossomed. Poll numbers for Obama and health-care overhaul sank. Republicans scored big wins in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts. What would have been unthinkable a few months ago -- a return to GOP control of the House -- now seems possible. Democrats are putting their fingers to the wind and seeing trouble ahead -- with Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana the latest to forgo re-election.
Yet Democratic leaders still don't seem to get the message. Veteran Democrats and Republicans in the Senate last week reached a rare bipartisan agreement on a jobs bill -- only to have Majority Leader Harry Reid undercut the deal after hearing complaints from liberals.
Next week Obama hosts a health-care summit with congressional leaders. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sees it as a test of Obama's commitment to bipartisanship: "Will it be a lecture to us as Republicans as to why we should support this big bill with a few changes? Or will it be a desire to start over and get our input?" At last report, the White House was trying to bridge the differences between House and Senate Democrats on health care. What does that tell you?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/2050014,CST-EDT-hunt16.article#