Thursday, July 08, 2004

Come to think of it...

...I would tweak the ad Amy Sullivan describes in the post below just a little bit. I'd take the word "owned" off her label for the Capitol building. The Republicans may operate the place, but they don't own it.

The people own it, and the R's are just the managers. Damn poor ones at that.

For example, the department head on the Senate side, Majority "Leader" Bill Frist, not only can't get a budget passed, he's so incompetent that he can actually kill a bill that has 60 co-sponsors.

Yep, while critical funding measures for national security go unattended, while Americans continue to suffer long term unemployment without the lifeline of a benefits extension, while schools decay and millions go without health care, the erstwhile Mr. Frist pushed his pet project - diminishing the rights of injured Americans access to relief in the courts - to the top of the Senate agenda and then blew the deal.

He must have done his management studies at the Ken Lay School of Business.

That's right. After months of negotiations and several failed attempts at passage, a class action 'reform' (deform would be more accurate) bill was finally crafted that drew enough Democratic support to secure filibuster-proof sponsorship. Part of the deal involved providing the Democratic minority the opportunity to propose a limited number of amendments. Then Frist went to work.
Seeking to bar unrelated additions to the bill which could complicate its future in negotiations with the House of Representatives, Senate Majority leader Bill Frist on Wednesday evening moved to limit the debate to germane amendments. A vote on this motion was set for Friday.

In the meantime, Frist said, he welcomed senators to propose relevant changes to the bill, which has supporters in both parties, on Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, Frist used a different procedural maneuver, which effectively blocked other senators from making any amendments at all while debate continued.
At that point, he started to lose sponsors.
"One sure way to kill this bill is to close off debate," said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and one of the co-sponsors of the class action bill.
He even started to lose Republicans.
Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, who backed the class action bill but wanted to offer an amendment to make undocumented farm workers legal residents, said he "does not appreciate" Frist's action.
Now, I'm perfectly happy to see the legislation die, and one reason is as good as another in my book. If it takes incompetent leadership to kill it, that's fine. The fact is, though, that there's important business to do in the Senate, and it will take a competent manager to get it done. Luckily, we've got the application of a terrific manager on file, and Tom Daschle is just waiting for the call.

Frist treats the US Senate like a personal fiefdom, but he's just a hired hand.

Fire him.

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