There’s a tendency, especially among the young, to place elected officials on a pedestal and exist in awe of them. With age comes the realization that they’re just like most folks, warts and all, except that sometimes they manage to exhibit conduct not only unbecoming to mature people but downright silly and/or petty…maybe even dumb. The people in all the political parties are subject to this and are most likely to make themselves look bad right after a shakeup in which they secure privileges never experienced (or at least not for a long time) or expected.
Pettiness carried to the quintessential degree was carried out last week by Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when they arranged a TV “signing ceremony” (a la the oval office) for the simple exercise of the authenticating of legislation. They proceeded to compound their juvenile tendencies by delaying the submission of the legislation to the president for four days until 01 May, the fourth anniversary of his “Mission Accomplished” ceremony on the aircraft carrier, apparently not realizing that at that time the combat segment of the operation in Iraq had been accomplished, and the president was right. Pelosi and Reid actually embarrassed themselves, as folks remarked their juvenile behavior
This action can be easily understood by any third-grader on any playground in the land. It’s called SPITE, and it’s endemic to folks at most any age, but particularly during the childhood and adolescent years. Its objective is to embarrass, especially by anyone intent upon gaining revenge upon another, especially as practiced by the one of the two who is in the subordinate position. Example, personal: Because a high-school teacher wouldn’t let me make up a test I missed because I was sick, I looked out the window virtually continually while in class after that but always made it a point to know exactly where the discussion was so that I could quickly answer when called upon. That was SPITE…it didn’t hurt the teacher a bit but made me feel better…also made me pay attention.
The democrats had been out of power in Congress since 1994 and 1996, respectively, in the House and Senate until this year. They’ve celebrated their return to power with endless investigations, hearings, subpoenas of one type or another, ultimatums, and general hanky panky instead of doing anything constructive, mostly to embarrass and remove administration officials from their posts. They’ve been eminently unsuccessful, so they’re trying harder at failing. The only meaningful legislation passed so far has to do with the minimum wage, and even then there was an attempt to exempt its requirement from some businesses in Speaker Pelosi’s California.
Pelosi, Reid and their henchmen have decided to run the war in Iraq by holding spending bills for the military hostage, demanding unrealistic maneuvers that would place the military and the Iraqi government in untenable positions. To make their efforts even more unseemly, they attached huge segments of pork to their supposed military spending bills, meaning that they had to buy votes in order to get anything passed. Imagine the irony noticed by the military…having to buy votes in order to get elected officials to vote “the right way” on something as serious as a war. Democrat Senator Joe Biden, current presidential contender, told a South Carolina voter that Congress should "shove it (the legislation) down his (Bush’s) throat." Presumably, this would come after the pork is guaranteed. Disgusting!
Before she could get her office furniture arranged, Speaker Pelosi was off to Syria to confer with the head of a state that overtly supports terrorism against this country and enables terrorism in Iraq. She was so besotted with her new power that she actually thought she was so important that fraternizing/conferring with the enemy was a prerogative accruing to her eminent position not just in this country but throughout the world. It may be that she had confused her office with that of the secretary of state, but all she did was make herself look silly, as had some senators shortly before her, notably Kerry, presidential candidate last time around who recently remarked upon the intelligence (or lack of it) of GIs, and Dodd, who actually is running for the presidency now, as far-out as that seems.
So…the worm has turned. It will take a while before the democrats realize that virtually nothing has changed. Gridlock is still operative in the Congress. Political jockeying is as much in place as ever, this time with Republican Minority Leader McConnell, maybe the shrewdest politician of all, calling the shots, and he makes the former minority and currently majority leader, Senator Reid, pale in comparison regarding parliamentary skullduggery.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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