Democrats promised change, delivered more of the same

Democrats promised change, delivered more of the same

Remember when the Democrats took control of Congress and promised things would be different?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada led the nation to believe that Congress was ready to put partisanship aside, roll up its sleeves and get to work.

Well, either the Democrats were hapless or the Republican minority outsmarted them, but there has been scant evidence of any real progress.

We remember last summer, when congressmen on both sides of the aisle railed against the Iraq Parliament because it was going to take an August recess without getting all its work done. So where was their indignation this summer when the U.S. Congress adjourned until after Labor Day, leaving matters vital to the American people on the table? Yes, we know that it’s hot in Washington in August, but certainly no hotter than in Baghdad. And we know the August recess is a tradition, but sometimes tradition has to be broken. This was one of those times.

Last Friday, after the House had adjourned, about 40 Republicans hung around long enough to poke some fun at Democrats and their leadership. “Madame Speaker, where art thou?” shouted Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, “Where oh where has Congress gone?”

Other members launched similar rhetorical attacks on Pelosi and her colleagues, with some hooting and booing in ways more reminiscent of the British Parliament than the U.S. Congress.

Short memories

How quickly the Republicans forget the number of times their party took long recesses when there was work to be done. They forget about budget bills not passed on time — and that when omnibus bills were pushed through at the last minute they were stuffed with pork.

But that is exactly the point. Pelosi and Reid promised something better. And they haven’t delivered.

The price of gasoline at the pump has dropped a few dimes in recent weeks, but it is still more than a dollar above what it was a year ago.

The nation needs an energy policy and it is a disgrace that neither party is taking that need seriously or that the leadership of neither party is mature enough to seek the compromise that is necessary to reach one.

Instead, they seized on slogans — for the Democrats it was “use it or lose it,” for the Republicans it was “drill now” — and they clung to their slogans as if they were the wisest words ever uttered. It is frightening that such nonsense can pass for governance in the year 2008.

Both sides will now go back home and work on their re-election campaigns, each side accusing the other of being obstructionists.

Pelosi and Reid have squandered an opportunity to demand something more, something better. The Democratic leaders should have announced that Congress would stay in session until an energy bill was hammered out. C-Span would become the all-energy, all-the-time network as Congress debated — really debated — the merits of various energy proposals. In the course of that debate, American voters would come to see who were the statesmen and who were the obstructionists.

We can’t imagine that it would have taken all of August to pass a piece of legislation that served the best interests of the nation, but even if it did, it would have been a month well spent.