Dems need to prove competence

It’s been an interesting 2007 for the president of the United States. I’m sure he could come… It’s been an interesting 2007 for the president of the United States. I’m sure he could come up with some emphatic expression to replace “interesting” – surely, with the help of Vice President Cheney – and I’d love to hear it.

Sometimes I can’t help but feel for the three or four people in the entire White House who are genuinely decent – not the evil robots who outnumber them – and have been inundated with mountains of work to cover the administration’s lack of competence.

But, except for those weak, sensitive moments, it’s all I can do not to spend my days putting graffiti on all of the stalls in the Cathedral with the ever-growing list of this administration’s crimes and idiocy. Iraq keeps getting worse and everyone knows that it’s Bush’s fault. The congressional investigations of the Department of Justice are closing in – each additional inquiry coiling the rope tighter and tighter, while inching closer to their most important throats. And finally, Bush’s fear-mongering rhetoric seems only to highlight his desperation.

What I’m saying is, I get why the president’s approval rating can barely scrape the muck off the bottom of the electorate. But all the hope and optimism that was restored to me last November when the Democrats took back control of Congress has felt betrayed lately, and I have to admit that I agree with the 64 percent of Americans in the latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll who disapprove of the job Congress is doing.

With a 23 percent approval rating, the Democrat-controlled Congress is polling lower than George W. Bush’s 29 percent, although with 66 percent against him, more Americans are sure they disapprove of our president than they do Congress.

And the predictable people will point their fingers at this poll and scream “the-investigations-those-Democrats-insisted-on-destroyed-their-support” until it becomes the new less-than-truism we’ll hear for the next 20 years by the reincarnations of James Carville and Joe Klein. Because at this rate, the Dems can’t hope to remain in power for too long.

But it’s not the investigations that are depressing both my and America’s approval. In fact, the American people are remarkably behind Democratic efforts to get the bottom of all the dishonorable deeds committed so blithely during the past six years. As the March 2007 Gallup poll reports, 72 percent of the people agree with this Congress’ decision to investigate the Department of Justice’s firing of eight federal prosecutors, which is a ridiculous percentage considering there is no naughty anatomy involved in this scandal.

But America didn’t put Democrats in those seats of power to tell them about political firings – although I’m sure most of us would agree that adhering to the law is something that should be reintroduced in Washington – we did it to get out of Iraq.

Last year it was clear to enough people that the war could not be won or victory wasn’t going to be worth the lives it would cost – or that it was being run by the wrong people.

For four months the Democrats spoke the words they needed to say; told the president that they would never give Bush a blank check for Iraq. They said that we need to set a date for leaving Iraq. And then when the time came to do it, the leaders of the Democratic Party not only stood down, but insulted our intelligence by calling it a victory for accountability afterward.

This is the reason the Democrats are polling so low; no one expected to be out of Iraq by tomorrow, but that was a staggering lack of resolve they put on display. They might as well be Republicans if they’re going to give the president exactly what he wants.

To be insanely generous, we can call this result a compromise. And yet, it seems any elected official would hesitate to follow that not-quite-a-fan-favorite with more stories about new compromises. Iraq is destroying everyone involved, but what will keep the support low are stories about how last week the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations voted to increase funding for abstinence-only idiocy.

A Democratic sub-committee voted to increase the funding by $28 million, in fear that Bush would veto another piece of their legislation – another compromise that alienates the people who worked the hardest to elect them

Last year, Americans showed their disdain for the Republican Congress. And I’ll bet a lot of those who polled in majority were truly dissatisfied in Republican incompetence at governing, with reasons spanning from law-breaking, to bribery, ethics violations, special interest allegiance and the administration’s treatment of science.

The reason this Congress is not enjoying the support that it could is because it hasn’t shown that they are capable of governing yet. Part of competent governing is making compromises in order to get things done; but an equal part is living up to their campaign promises by defending the principles that define the Democratic Party.

Certainly when they fail at doing both, people will notice.

There’s hope; they just need a good talking to. E-mail Arun at thefamilyatomics@gmail.com.