Politics

In politics, it is rare to find a politician that makes a “perfect fit” for a cabinet position, but if there ever was such a perfect fit, it would be former Senator Chuck Hagel for the position of secretary of Defense. Hagel, the former Republican Senator from Nebraska, has been rumored to be at the top of President Obama’s shortlist for the position.

He has combat experience — having served in the Vietnam War as an infantry squad leader, he achieved the rank of sergeant and was awarded multiple medals including two Purple Hearts. After leaving the military, Hagel was dedicated to helping American troops and veterans. He was appointed deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration, where he fought for funding for VA programs, and he served as president and CEO of the USO.

With Senators Tom Udall and Jeff Merkley, who were first elected in 2008, leading this year’s charge for Senate Rules changes, both supporters and opponents of filibuster reform depict the effort as a young man’s game. Senator Mitch McConnell dismissed the initiative as the machinations of a “cohort of short-sighted Senate sophomores.” Journalist George Packer, a reform proponent, describes Senator Carl Levin and other filibuster defenders as “Catos [who] see themselves as steady hands trying to keep the hallowed old institution from being changed out of recognition by young barbarians like Merkley, Warren, and Tom Udall.”
 
Although Udall and Merkley are the public faces of filibuster reform this year, and while many of the staunchest defenders of the status quo have served long tenures, long-serving members are also on the frontlines advocating reform.

Dysfunctional!

This is the term that almost everyone has used to describe the 112th Congress even after the New Year’s Day passage of the “fiscal cliff” legislation to responsibly address some pressing taxation issues. However, the public and media understand that this final bi-partisan act was only a temporary pause from Congress’s dysfunctional ways.

Much of this problem lies with the voters rewarding extreme partisanship over cooperative problem solving and Congress making policy decisions that guarantee later stalemates. 

After disappointing losses this election cycle, Conservatives need to learn that sometimes circumstances only get worse until a higher and greater cause prevails. Our bitter and bloody Civil War is a perfect example of this truth.

In October, 1862, in a cartoon published in England’s Punch magazine, John Tenniel portrayed the Emancipation Proclamation as Lincoln’s “desperate last-trump card.” During the early and darkest days of the Civil War, after vowing not to touch the “institution” of slavery, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, the ending of slavery was a central goal of the war.  A moral context was provided for the bloody struggle ahead and the war was won.

What lies before us is not the defeat of Speaker Boehner’s so-called Plan B — a dead on arrival proposal on the impending fiscal cliff with no bipartisan support — but instead the culmination of the radicalization of the Republican Party.

What is the evidence?

When CODEPINK, MoveOn and representatives of other organizations marched into Senator Harry Reid’s D.C. office on Tuesday, December 18, they wanted a simple answer to a simple question: Does the Senator support a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips, such as the legislation proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein and supported by President Obama and Vice President Biden? It would seem like a no-brainer for the Senate majority leader to fall in line with the leadership of his party in backing a modest bill that would ban the sale of weapons that are only good for mass murder. Unfortunately, Reid’s senior policy advisor Kasey Gillette was unable to give an answer.

Have you noticed the pattern?  A private company cuts corners on risk control; a terrible disaster occurs; and then politicians and the public blame . . . the U.S. regulatory system.

The latest example: a Massachusetts drug compounding pharmacy that contaminated vials of steroids and caused hundreds of cases of fungal meningitis, including dozens of deaths. Even while the Food and Drug Administration was still responding to the serious public health threat, the FDA Commissioner had to answer angry questions from members of Congress. Representative Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) told Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that the meningitis outbreak “was a complete and utter failure on the part of your agency.”

The stumbling path to the fiscal cliff reveals a deep divide between elected officials and the American people.
   
All around the nation, economic shoots of recovery were sprouting at year end: the housing market, jobs and consumer spending. U.S. companies hold $1.74 trillion in cash and other liquid assets, which if invested, could advance a sustained recovery.

Meanwhile, these economic sprouts are fragile, given the headwinds facing the world economy: declining growth in India and China, Japan is teetering on another bout of deflation and the European economy remains in the doldrums. 

This holiday season, as we enjoy time with our families and loved ones, let’s all take a moment to say a prayer for those in Newtown, Connecticut. In difficult times like these, it’s human nature to search for causation and look for someone or something to blame, but we may never be able to explain the senseless tragedy that occurred last Friday. What we can do, however, is let Newtown know that we are a nation united in our mourning for the victims of Friday’s act of violence and that we are sending our thoughts, prayers and well-wishes to their town. Pam and I will continue to remember Newtown as we celebrate Christmas, and we will, like so many around the country, hold our granddaughters Kathryn and Caroline a little tighter this year.

In just the last month, we’ve seen three high-profile congressional exits announced, forcing states to incur additional expenses for special elections and constituents to make do with decreased services throughout the transition.
 
In the cases of Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), it is hard to see these members’ actions as anything but selfish. Unless we want to see a greater number walk away — mostly in search of a big payday — congressional leadership and voters should condemn this practice.