You know, it's as if the Democratic Leadership has had their irony detector surgically removed. How else do you explain this?
Democratic leaders on Thursday warned the Iraqi government was locked in a stalemate, as they jockeyed for position ahead of another Senate showdown over Iraq war funding.
"Every place you go you hear about no progress being made in Iraq," said Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.
"The government is stalemated today, as it was six months ago, as it was two years ago," Reid told reporters, warning US soldiers were caught in the middle of a civil war.
"It is not getting better, it is getting worse," he said.
Now this is coming from a Congressional Leadership that can not put aside their partisan differences long enough to pass most of the legislation they have sponsored.
The most recent example is the pork-laden appropriation for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). First they tried to bundle this monument to pork with the appropriation for the military. Senate Republicans outmaneuvered the leadership by forcing the Democrats to separate the bills. Both passed but Bush promptly vetoed the HHS appropriation bill and when it got back to the House, Democrats failed to override the veto.
But this comes on the heels of Democrats passing an appropriation for the Battles in Iraq and Afghanistan that has a withdrawal timetable. It passed the House with less Democratic support than ever. What's more, it's not even going to get through the Senate so the President can veto it.
The legislative record of this Congress is simply pathetic.
As reported to Congress in July, the Iraqi Parliament has a much longer list
including enactment of laws creating an electoral commission, military courts, a $41 billion budget that includes $10 billion for reconstruction and capital investment and laws allowing formation of larger federal regions and easing rules for investment in production of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Given the severe religious and ethnic divides present in Iraq, I'd say they've done quite well and deserve a break.
I reported back in July that this list surpassed the US Congress' list of accomplishments and that's still true today
The 110th Congress has indeed passed 116 pieces of legislation, but it’s mostly a list of resolutions declaring this or that, or designations naming federal buildings here and there.
A person doesn’t have to follow Congress daily to know that it has basically done nothing this year. There’s been a lot of bickering and preening and posturing, but no substantive action on major issues.
The debate over a federal children’s health insurance program has been a trip to nowhere, with Republicans and Democrats unable to compromise so far on how much the program should be expanded, if at all...
Bush and congressional leaders tried to pass so-called comprehensive immigration reform, but were beaten back by a fierce tide of public opinion.
There is an energy bill, but that has yet to advance.
There are multiple budget bills to fund the federal government for 2008, and none have passed so far, at least without a veto.
Unbelievably, the House Democratic leadership recently announced that the House will not be in session five days a week next year. Maybe taking Fridays off is appropriate, considering the current level of accomplishment in the House.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Leadership, at the behest of Moveon.org and Code Pink, are doing everything possible to assure that progress in Iraq gets to be worse than Congress' progress in America.
Given the unwarranted criticism of the Iraqi Parliament by the impotent Senate Majority Leader it would seem that this goes beyond projection and has moved towards wish fulfillment.
