Opinion: Two wartime political realities

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Let’s compare and contrast a couple of things.

There’s been an awful lot of heated talk--even outrage--in recent weeks about that do-nothing parliament over there in Iraq. A bunch of clowns who were elected, true enough, by millions of courageous voters who cast their ballot under threat of death and then defiantly and proudly waved ink-stained fingers in the air to prove it.

The Iraqis are awfully new at this democracy game. So this nation that took 13 years from the Declaration of Independence to the Bill of Rights and has been working how many decades to reconcile relations with minorities set some benchmarks for these bozos to meet or else. Gave ‘em 90 days to do it. Seems reasonable enough. Sounds good on TV anyway.

But those parliament guys are something else. They don’t meet full time by anyone’s standards. They’re riven by political factions that refuse to compromise and are always thinking locally for their own party, not for the national interest. They’re constantly arguing and looking out for their own little constituencies as they each maneuver for future political position. Numerous members are routinely absent doing other things.

They talk a lot but very little seems to ever get done from this distance. The pressing need for a new national energy plan, which everyone agrees is necessary, after months of arguing remains just that: a pressing national need that everyone agrees is necessary. Other important measures sit there unpondered while lawmakers fiddle with trivial international resolutions on olive oil and tobacco.

To make matters worse now this week, even while the war continues without break, the Iraqi legislators are taking the entire month of August off, as tradition and the capital’s summer heat have long dictated. Nevermind the invention of air conditioning. They won’t return to work until Sept. 4.

True, there are some distractions in Baghdad like incoming mortar rounds and suicide bombers. And they’ve had a dictator making all the decisions for some decades. But bottom line from the relative safety of the continental United States, they pretty much look like a do-nothing parliament.

Now, let’s contrast that with the United States Congress, which has had how many centuries...

of practice? Because of dissatisfaction with the old party running things and taking their car-bomb-free balloting for granted, American voters last fall sent a new majority to run Congress and finally get some things done. The new majority party announced an ambitious agenda for accomplishment, call it a set of benchmarks.

Now, Congress doesn’t meet full time by anyone’s standards. They’ve been gathered there since January. We know this because every day since then the feuding parties’ leaderships have dueling news conferences for the television cameras to proclaim their willingness to get stuff done and blame the others for obstructionism as they each maneuver for future political position.

They’re riven by political factions that refuse to compromise and are always thinking locally for their own party, not for the national interest. It seems like the party in charge has launched 100 investigations involving officials in the other party with not much beyond political points to show for it.

As for legislation, they’ve packed billions of dollars of special-interest money onto existing legislation, trying to look out for their little constituencies back home. The pressing need for a new national energy plan, which everyone agrees is necessary, after months of arguing remains just that: a pressing national need that everyone agrees is necessary.

Other important measures sit there unpondered while lawmakers fiddle with trivial international resolutions on issues like denouncing Japanese sex slavery in the 1930s. Numerous members are routinely absent doing other things, like running for president. So far, after months of deliberation, the new budget that starts in about 60 days remains stalled in a dozen pieces. After seven months of alleged work Congress has been able to pass only one important bill, a minimum wage hike. Ethics reform still has yet to pass both houses.

Even student loan legislation is stalled by the inability of a Senate-House conference committee to compromise.

As for working time, Congress took 10 days off for July Fourth, a national holiday that most of us manage to celebrate in one day. And now this week, even while the war continues without break, the American legislators are taking the entire month of August off, as tradition and the capital’s summer heat have long dictated. Nevermind the invention of air conditioning. They won’t return to work until Sept. 4.

Boy, those Iraqis really have a lot of nerve, don’t they?

--Andrew Malcolm