Harry Reid today, reports Felicia Sonmez and Rosalind Helderman, took to the Senate floor today to bash the House...for not staying in session this weekend. I'll give that a well-deserved Ugh.
Two comments. First, I'd bet that the five minutes or whatever that Reid wasted on that one would have been more profitable had he spent them on debt limit negotiations or strategizing than, well, any 72 hours of keeping either chamber in session with nothing to vote on. It's hard to know for sure, but my guess is it's better for Members of the House to get back to their constituents, who might actually have some reality-based thoughts, then to force them to listen to each others' partisan rhetoric. At any rate, the rank-and-file Members don't have much to do until someone comes up with a deal for them to vote for or against, and I'm pretty sure the leadership knows where to find them if they need a whip count on something.
Second: maybe Mark Schmidt is right. Perhaps the Democrats really are bad at this stuff.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
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I think part of the problem is America is a secular nation. There isn't a lot of "we" or "us" anymore, which makes it harder for Democrats to make the argument for people to pay taxes.
ReplyDeleteIf you couldn't tell, Bowling Alone had a big impact on me.
You raise a good point. Probably the best thing that could happen right now would be for Congresscritters (of both parties) to get out of the Washington bubble and get an earful from their constituents. I imagine that a lot of the town halls would be quite lively!!
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