Sandals at the Gate

How did Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) commemorate Constitution and Citizenship Day, when he returned to the Senate floor on Monday? In an odd twist of logic, he blamed the minority party for how little work has been done in the 109th Congress.

September 17, which fell on Sunday, celebrated the ratification ofthe United States Constitution and Frist used that occasion to announcethat Senate Democrats are actually the reason that the last 20legislative months have been proclaimed the "Do-Nothing Congress."

"Too often my colleagues on the other side of the aisle haveinhibited the fulfillment of our duty," said Frist, after a stirringreading of the preamble of the Constitution. "They have relied onobstruction and thrown up roadblocks at every opportunity. They havelet politics get in the way of sound policy and purpose. That isunacceptable."

Frist read a laundry list of issues he believes are important andthat will be left on the back burner after the Senate's scheduledOctober 6 adjournment and urged Democrats to "…review ourConstitution's Preamble, to consider anew our purpose here in theSenate, and to let that purpose guide our debate and action here on theSenate floor."

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has endured this Congresswith control of no committees, an inability to pass any meaningfullegislation and no say over the Senate's legislative agenda, was onFrist faster than Halliburton snaps up a no-bid contract.

"For more than 3 years, this Congress, which has been given the nameof the "do-nothing Congress,'' has turned a blind eye to theintractable war in Iraq, ignoring the administration's many mistakesand allowing it to stay on a failed course," said Reid. "Here we are,with 6 days left in the 109th Congress, and the Republicans, whocontrol the House and Senate and the White House, have not held onehearing -- not one -- into the President's wartime failures."

Givenhow little attention the White House and Congressional Republicans haveactually paid to the Constitution in the last few years, I'm sure Fristwas blindsided by Reid actually invoking that old checks and balancesthing that schoolchildren all over America were probably learning aboutlast week.

Reid went on to give the Senate leadership a quick history lesson onhow Congress is suppose to work and how it indeed operated before thecurrent crop of Bush rubber-stampers took over:

"During the Civil War, President Lincoln wasfaced continually with oversight hearings by his Congress. Of course,we know during World War II, there were a number of commissions. Themost famous was that conducted by Senator Harry Truman of Missouri,which led to his becoming Vice President. Some say, but for that hewould not have been chosen as Vice President.

"What was the Truman Commission? It was to determine whatwas going on with World War II. Was money being wasted? Were trooplevels right? Korean war hearings were also held, and the same for theVietnam war. But for this war, none--even though this war has takenlonger than it took to settle the differences in the European theaterin World War II. Soon it will be the same amount of time that we wereable to beat Japan."

Reid then let loose the frustration that's no doubt been building after watching Republicans shoot down three attemptsby Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in this Congress andkilling many pieces of legislation designed to bolster homelandsecurity -- including the 528-page, Democratic-sponsored Real Security Act of 2006, which was snuffed by Republicans just last week.

"This Republican Congress has wasted 20 months on horse slaughtering;the Schiavo case, dealing with someone's personal relationship, whichshould not even have been before this body; gay marriage; the nuclearoption; flag burning; repealing the estate tax," said Reid. "But theycould not find a day for some time to look at the President's mistakes,missteps, and misconduct, which have hurt American security and plungedIraq into a civil war -- not a day."

I guess you just have to call Reid an old-school kind of guy,hanging in there, against such great Republican opposition, with hisinsistence that the Senate maintain its mandated oversight of theexecutive branch.

But the real show-stopper came when Democratic Whip Dick Durbin(D-Il) stepped up to the microphone to engage Reid is a dialog thatmust have had Republican teeth gnashing all the way to the White House.Here it is, straight from the Congressional Record:

Mr. Durbin: Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. Reid: I will be happy to yield for a question.

Mr. Durbin: Can the Senator refresh my memory? Was Mr. Bremmerthe recipient of a gold medal or something from the President? Didn'the receive some high decoration or medal for his performance in Iraq?

Mr. Reid: The answer is, yes, he received that. I assume onewould expect that from somebody who had a throne while he was overthere.

Mr. Durbin: Isn't it also true that George Tenet, who wasresponsible for the intelligence that was so bad that led us into thewar in Iraq, got a medal from the President the same day?

Mr. Reid: That is true.

Mr. Durbin: Did Michael Brown with FEMA receive a gold medal from the White House before he was dismissed?

Mr. Reid: I don't think he did. Even though he was doing a heckof a job, I don't think he obtained a medal from the White House.

Mr. Durbin: Apparently, these gold medals were being awarded forincompetence. They missed Mr. Brown, but they did give one to Mr.Bremmer. Will the Senator yield for another question?

Mr. Reid: I will be happy to.

Mr. Durbin: I am trying to recall the exact number -- it was inthe billions of dollars -- that we gave to the President for thereconstruction of Iraq; is that not true?

Mr. Reid: It started out at $18 billion. But as the Senator fromIllinois will remember, part of that money, stacks ofone-hundred-dollar bills, was used by some of the contractors who weresent over there to play football games -- some of these same people.

Mr. Durbin: It is also true, is it not, that the Democraticpolicy conference has been holding hearings -- in fact, I think it isthe only agency on the Hill holding hearings -- on this waste andabuse, this profiteering and corruption at the expense of Americantaxpayers and even, equally important -- more importantly -- at theexpense of our troops?

Mr. Reid: I say to my friend, this war is approaching 3 1/2years, and there has not been a single congressional oversight hearingon the conduct of the war. This war has now cost us, the Americantaxpayers, about $325 billion. There has not been a singlecongressional oversight hearing on the war.

Mr. Durbin: I ask the Senator from Nevada if he might comment onthis as well: Are we not in a situation where the President has told usthat he wants to "stay the course'' in Iraq, and Vice President Cheney,when asked a week ago, said he wouldn't change a thing in the way theyhave done this war in Iraq? Is it very clear that unless there is achange in leadership in this town soon, we are going to continue downthis disastrous course, exposing our soldiers to danger every singleday, their families to the anxiety of separation, and the taxpayers ofthis country to billions and billions of dollars more being spent thatdon't make us any safer?

Mr. Reid: I say to my friend, I spent the weekend reading a book.I did other things. I spent a lot of time on an airplane. The book iscalled "Fiasco,''written by a man named Thomas Ricks who has spent his life covering themilitary. He has written books on the military. I don't know hispolitical persuasion. This book is on the best seller's list of the NewYork Times.

In this book, he talks in such detail about what has happened asa result of the incompetence of this administration to our valiantfighting men and women over there. I recommend the book to anyone. Itis a searing indictment of this administration.

Reid then thrust the final dagger on his own saying, "The war inIraq has been a diversion from the real war on terror. But thisadministration and this do-nothing Congress are content to stay thecourse, even as it makes America less safe and Iraq less stable. Weneed a new direction. This Congress has failed."

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