Nothing Doing In Congress

Schieffer: Democrats And Republicans Have Kept Bad Things From Happening By Not Doing Anything

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made a speech the other day in which he bragged that even though Republicans are the minority, they had kept many bad things from happening.

Well, that's just the half of it.

With the help of the Democratic majority, they have managed to keep much of anything from happening, good or bad.

Who says there's nothing that two sides can't accomplish together? Of course there is - doing nothing.

Congress ran to the airport Friday for yet another break - they're taking two weeks this year for Thanksgiving. I wouldn't ask how many days you're taking because that would be a digression.

But my question is this: What do the following have in common?

Legislation to provide health insurance for children, education legislation, energy legislation, the farm bill, funding the Iraq war, and legislation funding all federal agencies except the Pentagon next year.

The answer is: All of them are stalled in Congress, awaiting final action, tangled in the gridlock that the Republicans blame on the Democrats and the Democrats blame on the Republicans.

Breaking the gridlock won't be easy. After all, once Congress gets back from the Thanksgiving break, Christmas vacation will be just weeks away.

I've heard all the excuses so many times, I've stopped listening. All I know is Congress continues to bring new meaning to that old phrase: nothing doing.

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[rowdytexan2]

GOOD! I hope this Congress doesn''t send a bill for Bush to sign, except that''s absolutely necessary to keep the government running. We don''t want any more bills sent back to be written HIS way. Screw him and render him powerless.

Just keep sending him the war funding bill with a troop withdrawal on it. That''s all that needs to be done right now.

We can just drive the car we''ve got until he gets out of office.

[usbrit-2009]

Hopefully by this time next year the Democrats will hold both houses by 2/3 margins and the presidency. Then we''ll see real decision making. The repugs might as well stay in their limos in the parking lot.

[knyghtwolf]

All three branchs remind me of The He-Man Woman Haters club from the Little Rascals series. None of the weenie three get anything done, just stupid posturing, strutting, preening, sort of like a stinky old chicken coop full of old hens and stoic old roosters. Mel Gibson, make a movie about the government, Call it The Little Rascals go to Washington....all grown up.

[kansas1946]

Hey, Kentucky,...if we have to look and listen to that weak-chinned, mealy-mouthed, POS McConnell after he comes up for reelection, we''''re coming over there and kick your a$$e$,....
Sincerely,
America

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Posted by veteran71 at 08:47 PM : Nov 19, 2007
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vet, I am glad I am not the only one that just about throws up everytime I see this guy. He is the smarmiest little weasle. I just doubt the sanity of those people in Kentucky if they keep electing this guy. I thought Kentuckians were like tough mountain people, real down-to-earth Americans, so how this little bespeckled nerd that would probably get lost in a hedgerow appeals to them, I am at a loss to understand.

[kansas1946]

Who says there''s nothing that two sides can''t accomplish together? Of course there is - doing nothing.
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LOL. I agree. Remember when Newt was speaker and they were having that big battle over the budget and Washington shut down for a few days because they couldn''t come to an agreement? Well, I think that is one of the few times in the last 30 years that I really slept soundly. I knew I didn''t to worry about the Washington idiots pulling some stunt while I slept. I wish they were only in session about three months. That would be much better for America.

[jm12997]

More from Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute:

For Reid, the past six months have been especially frustrating because... Republicans have adopted a tactic of refusing to negotiate time agreements on a wide range of legislation, something normally done in the Senate via unanimous consent, with the two parties setting a structure for debate and amendments. Of course, many of the breakdowns have been on votes related to the Iraq War,... [on which] the Republican leaders long ago decided to try to block the Democrats at every turn to negate any edge the majority might have to seize the agenda, force the issue and put President Bush on the defensive.

But the obstructionist tactics have gone well beyond Iraq, to include things such as the 9/11 commission recommendations and the increase in the minimum wage, intelligence authorization, prescription drugs and many other issues.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell... and his deputy, Minority Whip Trent Lott ... have instead decided to create a very different standard in the Senate than we have seen before, with 60 votes now the norm for nearly all issues, instead of the exception. In our highly polarized environment, where finding the center is a desirable outcome, that is not necessarily a bad thing. But a closer examination of the way this process has worked so far suggests that more often than not, the goal of the Republican leaders is to kill legislation or delay it interminably, not find a middle and bipartisan ground.

[jm12997]

I mentioned in my last post that Schieffer and his ilk in the corporate media now fail to call a filibuster a filibuster. Now, all of a sudden, the Senate "needs 60 votes" to get anything done - it''s always been that way, right? No. Only if the opposition party filibusters EVERYTHING. There was lots of discussion about Democratic filibusters, and filibuster threats, in the 109th Congress, as well as the Republicans threatening the so-called "nuclear option" and dismantling filibusters entirely. Now there''s only mysterious silence (partially because the feckless Democrats fail to make an issue of it.

As Trent Lott told Roll Call in April, "The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail,... and so far it''s working for us."

I recommend Norman Ornstein''s July analysis on the American Enterprise Institute website (yes, that''s the highly conservative American Enterprise Institute). Link:

http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.26506/pub_detail.asp

Quote: " This is a very different year, one on a record-shattering pace for cloture votes, one where the threat of filibuster has become routinized in a way we have not seen before. As Congressional Quarterly pointed out last week, we already have had 40 cloture votes in six-plus months; the record for a whole two-year Congress is 61."

More at the link. Definitely worth a read.

[jm12997]

Schieffer claims that this is a do-nothing Congress (true), claims that he''s "heard the excuses from both sides," and concludes that both are guilty. It''s a classic example of talking head laziness. Just as with evolution and global warming, the media claim that if they present "both sides" uncritically, then they are doing their job. (I await a similar "controversy" on the shape of the Earth: is it spheroid or flat? Stay tuned, film at 11.)

What Schieffer fails to report on is the Republican filibuster obstruction tactic, which suddenly, in the 110th Congress, is no longer being called a filibuster by Schieffer and his ilk in the corporate media.

As of 2007-11-16, there have been 56 cloture votes (attempts to end a filibuster) in the 110th Congress. That%u2019s less than halfway through the tenure of the 110th, and it%u2019s just 5 short of the 61 in the ENTIRE 107th Congress, which itself was the largest number since at least 1973 (and maybe ever). That doesn%u2019t count the additional _threatened_ filibusters from Republicans. If trends continue, the Senate will have 136 cloture votes by the end of the 110th Congress, making the Republicans of the 110th the heavyweight filibuster champions.

Schieffer could have reported on the actual facts around this "do-nothing" Congress and Republican obstructionism. But that would have required him to, you know, practice journalism.

[tylenol6]

All the democrats and ALL of the rebulicans should be
booted out of office. THAT GOES FOR SELLOUT PELOSI AND
REID who are 2 of the biggest losers. I have no idea
how these IDIOTS in congress get elected.

[tejasdemo]

I love the gridlock. Bush should get nothing. I am sick and tired of the minority view ruling the direction of my country.

[jerr11]

Bush does not understand what is compromise.

It''s his way or the highway.

With crapbrains like his, gridlock is what we need.

[oscarez]

"Not until someone can rally the people behind them like Martin Luther or a very large group of college students march on capital Hill will we ever see the great change that is needed in this country."

The only thing that will rally the people and change the system is another Great Depression. As long as people have a credit card and a job they are in their comfort zone.

[oscarez]

Better to have gridlock than a Republican congress that passes every bill that Bush likes. Gridlock is OK for the next year.

[adventurepa]

The truth is the elected officials know that most people are not going to leave their jobs to protest anything. Take vacation to write a letter, or pay attention to what has been going on in washington.

They know you are not going to stand up for your rights. They know you enjoy driving your car and living in your house, even if it is pay check to pay check..

When there is a march on washington the president and politians leave town or go on vacation.

Nothing is ever going to change much until, we the people, take back our government.

Not even an illegal war, looting of our tresury, or all the other illegal things happening in washington will make a difference.

We have no one to blame except ourselfs for the way things are now.

Not until someone can rally the people behind them like Martin Luther or a very large group of college students march on capital Hill will we ever see the great change that is needed in this country.

[garyws1]

you''ve got to love Mr. Schieffer.....usually spot-on.....LOL.....

[clestes-2009]

Well, Congress is finally doing something right. They are listening to the American people. The majority of Americans do NOT support giving more money without timelines.

Only time will tell if they continue to listen.

[rowdytexan2]

I would like for someone to go back and scrutinize all the legislation passed by the Bush administration since its inception. It is riddled with tax breaks for the corporates and elite. It seems I remember one unremarkable tax break that gave middle class families like a $600 tax break per family, which at the time made him look like some kind of hero. Fools! Everyone then turned then head and let him pass anything else he wanted to without scrutiny.

He did the same thing in Texas! Fooled every one of you!

Vote republican again, and vote your country into the most corrupt third world dictatorship in history.

[pastdue1]

The Democrat leadership is to put it bluntly.. COWARDS AND CHICKENSH*TS
Posted by airmanc5 at 09:07 PM : Nov 18, 2007

You may pick out the Democrats as being C & C, and you are half right. Half right, because the Republicans are also, C & C. It is time for this C & C congress to hold itself accountable. It is time for the main stream press to do its job; to force the C & C congress to take responsibility for all the shady "little" things they try to put over on the American public. It is time that all "pork barrel" contributers be made visably public, over and over again; it is time that all bills be explained by the press, including the items that guarantee a bill will not "go" , but a bill that is only intended for "news fodder". The press has continually failed the public during this Congress and this administration.
It is almost impossible to have an informed citizenry, the backbone of democracy, when there is no free press to guarantee it.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Schieffer: Democrats And Republicans Have Kept Bad Things From Happening By Not Doing Anything"

Brian: Shieffer Must Think that 4,000 Dead US Soldiers, And The Looting Of The US Treasury, The Mass Murder, The Bombing, Kidnapping, Torture, Rape, And Dislocation Of Millions Of Innocent Iraqis Resulting From Lies By The Bush Klan Is A Good Thing.

Nazi.

[roger3815]

I can''t help be reflect back on the Republican demands that the filibuster be ended two years ago. Seems they are singing a different tune these days.