Yesterday the House Democrats pursued articles of impeachment for Vice President Cheney. Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich read three articles of impeachment into the record. In an amusing maneuver, that caught the Democrats completely off-guard (this is a common occurrence these days), the Republicans changed their votes to join the Democrats in bringing the impeachment charges to a vote on the floor of the House. Said Rep. Pet Sessions (R-Texas), "We're going to help them out." "We're going to give them their day in court."
Nancy and Steny Hoyer, realizing that a vote to impeach would backfire on them politically, frantically scrambled to head off the process. A vote that was scheduled for 15 minutes was held open for over an hour before Nancy was able to get the whole matter referred to the Judiciary committee, effectively tabling it indefinitely.
This is just the latest in many political tangents pursued by the Democratic majority in Congress:
- Nancy attempted to pass a resolution condemning Turkey for genocide against ethnic Armenians in 1915 in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey is a critically important ally, and the only Muslim country that is a member of NATO. Perhaps Nancy does not realize that the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist almost a century ago.
- The House just overrode a veto by President Bush for a water projects bill that is so loaded with pet project, earmarks and pork it defies explanation. Nancy had promised to "drain the swamp" in Congress, in part by passing tough ethics rules that would eliminate the often corrupt practice of earmarks. The ethics bill that was finally passed contained almost none of the promised reforms. Amusingly, one of the biggest opponents to curtailing earmarks was Harry Reid. Since assuming power, the Democratic-controlled Congress has passed a staggering 11,351 earmarks for special projects!
- It is November, and Congress has not sent a single annual appropriations bill to the President this year. Since appropriation is one of the central Constitutional responsibilities of Congress it seems clear that there is a dereliction of duty.
- Nancy promised to end the war in Iraq. Congress can do this by simply not appropriating money for the war. That is their Constitutional prerogative. But Nancy, Harry, and the gang will not stand up and vote their conscience. Instead they have pursued an endless series of maneuvers to sabotage our success such as leaving the troops in the field but not providing them with critical equipment, dictate to the military the specifics of troop rotations and training requirements (not in Congress' Constitutional scope), etc.
- At times Nancy seems to think of herself as Secretary of State instead of Speaker of the House. Her visit to Syria was unfortunate to say the least. Her "Armenian Gambit" was so bizarre that her own party abandoned her and would not vote for it.
- Congress passed a bill to expand the S-CHIP program to cover children's health care for families making 400% of the poverty level, or $83,000 for a family of 4. This would have shifted many children away from private insurance to "free" taxpayer funded insurance. Nancy and Harry knew that President Bush would veto the bill and that they could not override the veto. But they pursued this anyway believing that a veto was politically beneficial for the Democrats. President Bush and the GOP very much want to provide health care for children of poor families. They have offered free taxpayer funded health care for children of families making up to 200% of the poverty level and have offered tax credits to further pay for children's health care for families making up to 300% of the poverty level. Instead of sitting down and working out a reasonable answer the Democrats just passed another version of the "400% bill" that they know will never become law.
- The Democratic chairmen of the various committees have pursued thousands or investigations into the Bush Administration. A few are legitimate oversite. Most are partisan fishing expeditions that are only about political theatre.
The latest Reuters/Zogby poll places Congress' approval rating at 11%, or about 1/3 of President Bush's approval rating. I wonder why?
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