[Vision2020] Looking Forward

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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January 2, 2013
Looking Forward By GAIL
COLLINS<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/gailcollins/index.html>

Right now you are probably asking yourself: Will the new Congress being
sworn in this week work any better than the last one?

There’s always a chance. Because, you know, it’s *new*. Also, the bar is
low, since some people believe the departing 112th Congress was the worst
in history, because of its stupendous lack of productivity and a
favorability rating that once polled lower than the idea of a Communist
takeover of America.

On the very last day the Republican-led House of Representatives was in
session, the Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, announced
it was “why the American people hate Congress.” This was after Speaker John
Boehner failed to bring up a bill providing aid to the victims of the
megastorm Sandy. Disaster relief joined a long list of bills that the 112th
Congress could not get its act together to approve, along with reforming
the farm subsidies and rescuing the Postal Service. Those particular pieces
of legislation were all written and passed by the Senate, a group that’s
generally less proactive than a mummy.

Ah, the House. To be fair, it takes a lot of effort to vote to repeal
Obamacare 33 times.

Our outgoing lawmakers did retrieve us from that “fiscal cliff.” Although
they were the ones who pushed us off in the first place. And they left the
new Congress facing a debt chasm, a sequestration void and a
government-stoppage bottomless pit.

So, yeah, this last one was pretty darned bad. The best argument I can make
for it is that none of the outgoing members walked onto the floor and
brained a colleague with a cane, as did happen in the 34th Congress. Which
also was being led by President Franklin Pierce. So I would give the 34th
the ribbon. But definitely the 112th is a contender.

The new Congress will have a few more Democrats in the House and Senate,
which will not make any difference whatsoever. On the plus side, the
proportion of political nut jobs may be a little lower. Representative
Allen West of Florida, who once called President Obama “a low-level
socialist agitator,” is, many recounts later, a member no more.
Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois was defeated by Tammy Duckworth, a
military veteran who lost both legs in Iraq and who Walsh claimed was not
one of “our true heroes.” Walsh was also an excellent reminder of an
important rule in American politics: refrain from criticizing the other
party for fiscal irresponsibility until you can work out a resolution of
that child support issue.

Tea Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has departed, too,
even though his term was only half over, to answer the siren call of a
seven-figure job at the helm of the Heritage Foundation.

Thanks to the blog Smart Politics, I am able to report that this is normal
behavior in South Carolina: one-third of all U.S. senators from South
Carolina have resigned over the course of our history. (South Carolina is
also the state that gave us the guy with the cane back in 1856.) DeMint was
replaced by Representative Tim Scott, whose seat will be filled in a
special election this spring. Right now one of the possible candidates is
Mark Sanford, the governor who we all remember for flying to Argentina for
an assignation with his lover while his staff claimed he was hiking on the
Appalachian Trail.

Another much-discussed potential contender is Jenny Sanford, former wife of
the above. People, while you are praying for a safe, sane and peaceful new
year, I want you to make a small exception and pray that Jenny and Mark
Sanford run against each other.

DeMint’s departure was only unusual for its abruptness. Members of Congress
regularly glom onto high-paying jobs in the private sector, none of which
involve the use of their skills in computer technology. The Center for
Responsive Politics counts 373 former House and Senate members who are
currently working as lobbyists.

That includes the former Utah Senator Bob Bennett, who announced that he
would be filing his official papers on Thursday, the exact moment the legal
two-year revolving door ban expires. Bennett had complained bitterly about
the cooling-off period being a restraint of his constitutional rights,
which left him forced to eke out a living as a consultant for the
BennettGroup and a member of a high-profile Washington law firm.

When it comes to a sudden departure, though, the new titleholder has to be
Representative Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, who quit Congress to become
president and chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association less than a month after she was re-elected to another term. She
said she had found “a new way to serve.” The Center for Responsive Politics
noted that the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association was not only
a big lobbying group, but also Emerson’s “biggest lifetime campaign
contributor.”

Still, remember, could be worse. No canes.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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