I Said Never Again

Nov 7, 2006 · 2 minute read

Here we are then, the last, final chance to place a check on the Bush Administration.

My anger has been rising over the past few weeks; not only with the brazen 'a Democratic vote is a vote for terrorism' ploy of the President and Vice-President, but because I've been reading the third volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson. The first hundred pages of that are an unabashed love letter to the Senate, explaining how the Constitution set up a body that was protected by various means from the Executive, the States, the population of the country, and even itself. How they resisted finding Andrew Jackson guilty on impeachment charges, despite public outcry. How FDR, with one of the largest Democratic majorities ever seen in the Senate, went to them to amend the Constitution so he could pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices. The Senate, even with an unassailable Democrat majority, refused to be a rubber stamp. The Senate stood.

Which is not to say that it was a Golden Age before 2000 (even though the FDR rejection was a good one for the nation, many of the Democratic Senators who voted against it did not do so entirely for the Constitution. They were, sadly, more concerned about a liberal Supreme Court making judgements that would affect the racist policies of the Southern states), but the current Senate has to be a contender for one of the worst in the body's history. Authorising torture, suspending habeus corpus, failing to increase the minimum wage (now the lowest it has been, inflation-wise, since 1955), eliminating the federal spending watchdog for Iraq, pretending that global warming doesn't exist, authorising warrantless wiretaps, and wasting time on pointless amendments about flag burning and gay marriage. And more. The Executive has ridden rough-shod over Congress for the past few years, going as far to scribble their own interpretation of laws in crayon over passed bills. It's time for it to stop.

And so here we are, hoping for a Democratic wave that probably won't quite materialise. The House of Representatives is surely going to fall into their hands tonight, but it's the Senate that holds the keys to reining in the Administration. I don't think they can do it, not the six seats that they need.

Especially when this is happening.

Seething here. Will be back later for the play-by-play a little later.