The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto asks an interesting question in this evening’s issue of Best of the Web Today:
“Is any voter going to judge his congressman more favorably because he voted for a “rule” to “deem” the Senate bill “passed” rather than cast the substantively identical vote to pass the bill? Is any wavering member of Congress foolish enough to expect that his constituents will make this distinction?”
Will a voter judge a member of congress more favorably? I don’t know if that is the best way to ask the question. I would have asked, “Will a member of Congress be able to use this dodge to fool voters?”
My answer; Yes.
I bet this move will help members a lot. As I wrote yesterday in Pelosi is the government We the People deserve, “We the People have short memories.” And today I want to add that We the People are highly subject to simple slogans filled with emotion and an overriding sense of party loyalty that simply defies logic. That goes for loyalists of both parties.
Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree (Blog here but I am reporting what I heard on radio not at this site) told a radio audience this morning that were the Republicans the party trying to pull off this self executing rule the Democrats would be the ones screaming. Further, Norman J. Ornstein at The American Enterprise writes, “In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.””
Note that Ornstein berates critics of the process noting that Dreir “used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package.” However, he does not characterize the significant differences between a $40 billion deficit reduction package and a $1 trillion overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, but he is correct that Dreir used the move so that “his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration.” He is point on hypocrisy is well taken.
The hypocrisy will continue until We the People get smarter. Until then; yes, we are that foolish.
