In The Aggregate - Arizona's political blogs » Mitch McConnell

Screwballs and Slurry Singers

Burt Prelutsky — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:30:37 +0000

I did not attend the Conservative Political Action Conference. That was partly because, like Chris Christie, I wasn’t invited. But it was also because I can’t imagine voluntarily sitting through days of speeches. To me, it verges on enhanced interrogation, but without the water. After listening to Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and Mitch McConnell, I suspect I’d tell my tormentors just about anything they wanted to know.

What I don’t get is why anyone wants to ...

Will the US Senate fix the Washington mess?

Jack Dunning — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

I did a post on Wednesday of last week, “How to fix a broken U.S. Government,” which emphasized the importance of negotiating, a lost art from the days of Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. During those periods, an old hand at the job, and Johnson and Rayburn were not only well-entrenched but also well respected, could talk to his or her fellow legislators and somehow come to a reconciliation that was favorable for both side. This mastery of politics has been gone for, let me see, at least as far back to when George W. Bush became president.

Mitch McConnell

So far the GOP hasn’t recovered from an election they thought they would win, and Sen. McConnell has never retreated from his statement to make Obama a one-term President, which obviously failed. Joe Palermo said following the 2012 election, “McConnell now promises the next best thing: Continue to abuse the filibuster as no Senate minority in American history has and gum up the works while demanding total capitulation on Obama's part before any bill can escape the clutches of his icy, deadening hand.” In Washington things never seem to change.

So with McConnell as the Senate Minority Leader, how is it that Ira Shapiro thinks this dysfunctional body can fix Washington? He says the consensus is already formed and that politics under president Obama’s second term will continue to be polarized. But he wants a “rejuvenated” Senate to be the nation’s mediator. Somehow I can’t see Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader and Mitch McConnell coming together on any major issues, except maybe gun control. Reid has refused to back Obama on the assault weapons ban.

Democrats do have control of the Senate and won 25 out of 33 elections in 2012, which Shapiro reads as a reaction to GOP extremism and obstructionism. The question is whether this trend can continue with momentum leading through the 2014 elections where the incumbent President’s party traditionally loses seats in Congress. Palermo’s article was over three months ago but now Shapiro says the country is in need of responsible adult leadership, something sorely lacking in both houses of Congress.

Harry Reid

Shapiro the optimist thinks, “The Senate is the only realistic partner to the president in seeking constructive solutions to the nation's challenges on guns, climate change and immigration.” I hope he is right because, aside from the economy and jobs, these are the three most important issues facing the United States. And in continued optimism he believes the majority of the Senate is serious about facing the challenges of the country. On the other hand we are just four days away from the $1.2 trillion in budget cuts that many say will paralyze the U.S.

Lyndon Johnson, along with Mike Mansfield, Everett Dirksen and Howard Baker are cited in Shapiro’s article illustrating a quality of leadership lost on today’s Senate. Although Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell didn’t create the current political barricades in the Senate, it has certainly flourished under their watch. Will they eventually retire having failed to accomplish the demands facing Congress today, or will they emerge finally as leaders who figure out that it is necessary to negotiate, not constantly call checkmate? The ball is clearly in their court.

How to fix a broken U.S. Government

Jack Dunning — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

I realize I am no expert on social science, wasn’t even really interested in the subject in college, but as a lowly progressive political blogger, I have become fascinated with our political system and its intricate workings. Actually, the system isn’t working now and if we don’t fix it soon, this country’s downfall could make the decline and fall of the Roman Empire look like a Sunday school picnic. We are no longer on the fiscal cliff, or curb as some described the problem, we are now headed toward a newly created political buzz word, “sequestration.”

Sequestration is defined by the HuffPost as, “referring to a series of draconian budget cuts, totaling $1.2 trillion, that {were} scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. These cuts are evenly split between defense and domestic discretionary spending (with some exemptions, such as Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits).” The GOP doesn’t want any more short-term fixes but refuses to budge on additional revenue mixed with spending cuts. The President is standing firm on what he wants and is likely to win the battle in the long run.

Is the problem caused entirely by Republicans? The answer is no and on the Democratic side, there is still the extreme left rallying for raising taxes and limiting spending cuts. In some cases we have noticed House Speaker John Boehner shifting from his supporters on the right, particularly the fanatics of the Tea Party, moving further toward the middle for some reconciliation on the issues. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also seems conciliatory in his latest speeches. So what is the problem? I’m not sure anyone really knows.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the GOP hasn’t recovered from an election they thought they would win. And Sen. McConnell has never retreated from his statement to make Obama a one-term President, which failed. According to JoePalermo in November of 2012, “McConnell now promises the next best thing: Continue to abuse the filibuster as no Senate minority in American history has and gum up the works while demanding total capitulation on Obama's part before any bill can escape the clutches of his icy, deadening hand.”

Sam Rayburn, former Democratic Speaker of the house from Texas, was considered by many to be the great negotiator. Lyndon Johnson was known to be good at bringing parties together in agreement on serious matters and even Barack Obama is looked on as a pretty good negotiator, considering the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. What happened to the art of negotiation, which almost anyone will agree is the only objective way to arrive at a governing solution? Where did this political necessity fall by the wayside, almost into oblivion?

Looking back at George W. Bush, he had a rather diverse Congress with the majority swinging from one party to the other in his eight years. Regardless, with GWB it was his way or the highway, thanks in part to his henchman, Karl Rove. Going back a few years, Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator and managed to get a lot of what he wanted. George H. W. Bush was known for managing the end of the cold war. Bill Clinton was able to get those in his party to vote for the largest tax increase in history in 1993. He also passed sweeping trade and welfare reforms in the face of withering fire from the left.

Not bad on both sides, except for the tyranny of George W. Bush, who many say will go down in history as this country’s worst president.

Negotiation is defined simply as a “mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement.” Well it’s not simple, at least as far as this Congress is concerned, a body that closed out 2012 with a 14% approval rating. In picking that definition apart, there are three basic ingredients that have to be satisfied. The first is there must be a discussion; second, there must be agreement on terms to fix the problem; and third, you must arrive at an agreement. Here’s how I sum that up:

There are discussions that tend to lead nowhere, basically blamed on a GOP Congress of “NO” to anything Barack Obama proposes. No one can come to terms because Republicans would rather obstruct Democratic legislation than present their own, except in rare cases. There can be no agreement because of one and two.

In simplification, it reminds me of the kid that didn’t like the way the football game was going, so he picked up his ball and went home. Sure, the Dems have to shoulder some of the blame in this standoff, but they might be more amenable to the conservatives if they weren’t constantly being stonewalled. But there is one thing that the right had better understand and that is the fact that Progressives are here to stay, and Republicans no longer have a free ride.