Nation crumbles as senators play games America can’t survive alternate self-destructive cycles of D’s and R’s

Daily Astorian Editorial
Thursday, December 13, 2007

What's wrong with this picture? Across a broad spectrum, America is in crisis. In response, congressional leaders play a game of chicken in order to position themselves for the 2008 election.

When the Senate convened Wednesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid read from a list of some 100 bills that are held up by single Republican holds. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded by citing a Gallup Poll which reveals the low esteem of the Democratic-led Congress, because of its meager product.

If Republican senators are setting up the Democrats for failure by blocking bills that have majority support, it is a game we have come to expect in Congress. Reid and McConnell were sketching the outlines of the television advertising we'll see next fall.

To expect an end to these political games would be as naive as believing there is a tooth fairy or that adolescents won't have sex. At the same time, however, there is a growing frustration across America that Congress and the president don't fully realize the enormity of the financial, environmental, diplomatic and military crises that beset America

Frank Rich on Sunday wrote that the national hunger for a new face in the presidential race is akin to the 1960 election that vaulted John F. Kennedy, a one-term senator, into the presidency. Of course, Seymour Hersh, author of The Dark Side of Camelot, would tell us that Joseph P. Kennedy used his connections with Chicago mobsters to win that election for his son.

But who are we in 2007 to be cynical about 1960? Al Gore won the 2000 election by a wide margin in the popular vote. The Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore was one of the court's most ignominious moments.

John Frohnmayer has launched an Independent candidacy for U.S. Senate in Oregon. He notes that one-third of Oregon voters are registered as Independents. In a three-way race, a candidate could win with 35 percent of the votes. That assumes, of course, that Frohnmayer is a compelling candidate with sufficient resources to project himself in the context of a Republican incumbent spending $10 million and a Democratic challenger spending $7 million.

Frohnmayer is right in one of his assumptions. He reasons that if he were to win in 2008, there would likely be a flurry of Independent Senate candidacies in 2010.

At this point, the tide is turning in favor of the Democratic Party. If that party were to maintain or enlarge its House and Senate majorities - regardless of which party wins the White House - a new level of intelligence, pragmatism and diplomacy must emerge, or we are cooked. If we are condemned to alternating self-destructive cycles of Republican and Democratic leadership, the nation's business will never be done.

Content © 2007 The Daily Astorian