I was really taken aback this morning when I looked at my newspaper and saw on the front page that Sen. Evan Bayh would be quitting the U.S. Senate.
Wait, let’s double-check: Yep, it’s a South Carolina newspaper. And no, this is not one of our senators. Ours are still Graham and DeMint, and we only get two. This is… well, I don’t know much about him other than his Birch Bayh‘s kid.
And I care about this why, exactly?
Oh, I knew without reading it why someone my assume that I would care — inevitably, the story would contain much mumbling about the balance of power between the two parties in Congress. But since I really couldn’t care less about which of these worthless parties holds a majority, this story means less than nothing.
No, excuse me — it’s about which party holds a supermajority, since we have to be able to shut off debate. That’s the way the Congress “works” now. I mean, God forbid there should be a debate, actual interaction, a prolonged deliberation in which minds could be changed. Seriously, I do not get this horror of filibusters. If the people who’ve spent the last few months wringing their hands over whether they have enough votes to shut off a filibuster had just thrown their bill out on the floor and let the opposition filibuster away, it all would have been over long before now.
And if you’re one of those people who thinks it matters which party holds the edge, think: What difference have you seen it make, one way or the other, in recent years?
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The parties may not matter but it’s very important to have more liberal-leaning guys in office. At least liberal-leaning guys with a spine. Otherwise we may end up with more Bush wars, Bush recessions and all the other horrors associated with GOP rule.
Because whenever a Democrat quits, there’s dancing in the streets of Mayberry.
Brad, the morning paper just isn’t the same without you, but I sure am glad to have you during my online time at night! Your last line in this blog is succinctly to the point. What difference indeed?
There were 8 straight years of national prosperity and virtually no soldiers killed in foreign adventurism during the Clinton years. Then we had 8 years of Bush that featured 2 recessions, stagnant wages, a banking system out of control and 5000+ soldiers killed. After a year of Obama and the Democrats we have an economy that’s turning around with job losses finally at an end with 2 straight months of declining unemployment. The war in Iraq is ending (hopefully). The DOW is up. Healthcare is at least being discussed. The results on that front are poor, but at least it’s under consideration. Nothing during the Bush years. No 9-11s. No Katrina debacles. No invasion of foreign countries who are no threat. No Abu Ghraib.
Hell yeah the party in power matters. If the dems actually had a spine we’d be in even better shape.