Your Senate Inaction

(No, I didn't miss a space in the title of this).

If you need a good example of how out of touch with reality our leadership is in this country, you have only to watch this past weekend's Meet the Press and the debate between Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.

Coming out of that segment of the program, there can't be two more textbook examples of the term "weasel" than these two men.

Andrea Mitchell, guest host for the week, asked a number of probing questions, and the answers were sickening.

Mr. McConnell spouted rhetorical talking points of dubious veracity. He repeated the claim that not having been attacked again means the war in Iraq was a good idea and has been successful and completely IGNORING the fact that the war in Iraq has bred much greater anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world and elsewhere than it has solved.

But Mr. Schumer was even worse, waffling, equivocating, and refusing to answer even the simplest of questions. Right now, Democrats across the state of CT are considering whether they wish to be represented by a man who calls himself a Democrat but behaves like a Republican, and yet the Democratic leadership of the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) are making implications that they plan to nominate Joe Lieberman even if he does not win the electoral primary in Connecticut, raising the question of what exactly is the point to a primary if the parties' leaderships are free to ignore their constituents and their members? Mr. Schumer, a member of the DSCC, was asked several questions about this an said that he wasn't willing to speculate because he was supporting Lieberman in the primary and wasn't prepared to speculate on “what ifs” when he believed Lieberman would win. He similarly waffled when asked about his take on a Hillary Clinton campaign for President, answering that right now, she was running for Senate re-election, and again, he did not wish to “speculate” beyond that.

Increasingly, I think the whole lot of them (or at least all of them who are running in 2006) should be shown the door. There are rare exceptions. Republican representatives John Duncan of TN and Ron Paul of TX, both apparently willing to stand up to party leadership and President on Principle. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, who may not stand for everything I stand for, but who seems to be out there trying to come up with solutions even when they disagree with his Democratic leadership. I'm torn about whether to include Joe Lieberman on this list. On the one hand, he's definitely willing to stand up to party leadership for his own reasons. On the other, those reasons appear to be entirely political and not based on principle at all.

Regardless, watching this weekend's edition of Meet the Press serves as a depressing reminder of the caliber of people we have serving as our leaders and the desperate need for a near complete housecleaning.

Liam.