8-06-05, 12:42 am

Congressional Republicans are worried, and they should be. Under their leadership, say the polls, Congress' approval rating couldn't fall much lower. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are viewed more and more has having an agenda that is closer to the interests of the majority of the people. While one may poke holes is this conclusion, all the numbers point to the possibility of an electoral shift in the 2006 election.

The main reason for the shift in opinion and growing momentum for congressional Democrats is that the Republicans’ congressional record for this past session is marked by dismal failures, hastily covered up corruption and vicious class war attacks on working families. In the past few years, the Republicans have been more interested in approving without debate the agenda of the President, over the interests of their constituents and working people in general.

Instead of fulfilling their Constitutional duty of 'checking' the power of the presidency, the Republican-dominated Congress has been a rubber stamp. The war in Iraq based on lies is the most tragic result. But trade, budget, and environmental policies that benefit only a handful of corporations at the expense of most working families is another.

The Republicans rammed through Congress a war based on lies (with the help of both deceived and cowed Democrats), have failed to investigate missing billions of dollars lost to corruption, 'no bid' contracts, theft and more in Iraq. They refused to demand any answers from the administration for why over 1,800 US service men and women have died because a series of fabrications designed to manipulate public opinion and to convince Congress to support the war.

When revelations emerged of widespread and systematic prisoner abuse that derived from White House and Pentagon policies, instead of investigating, holding all parties responsible, and demanding the highest standard of human rights from US military forces, Republican leaders in Congress made excuses and attacked human rights advocates, saying they were 'aiding terrorism.'

Republican leaders ignore run-of-the-mill corruption as well. When media reports showed that House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) had ties to corrupt lobbyists and may have peddled his influence over his Party and his power in Congress for campaign donations, the Republicans closed ranks, for the most part, and used its dominance of the House's bureaucratic mechanisms to stop an investigation. They fired republican ethics committee leaders who wanted to be honest and put in Party loyalists who are still committed to blocking a real investigation.

In all the fuss, revelations of several other Republican leaders accepting trips from lobbyists improperly got shoved under the carpet.

While Bush and the Republicans have celebrated very partisan victories on a few key pieces of legislation, closer examination shows that these laws were bought and paid for by large defense industry interests, banks, multinational corporations, and huge and rich oil companies. Under the Republican leadership America has become even more a country of Chevron, for Halliburton, and by JP Morgan and its well on its way to perishing as a democracy. Republicans are touting a slate of bills passed in both houses as 'accomplishments.' These include a bankruptcy 'reform' law that heavily favors the credit card industry and severely restricts the ability of people overwhelmed by debt to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It forces more people into repayment plans that ignore hardships and mitigating circumstances such as massive health care costs that are the cause of at least half of all bankruptcies. It basically voids the bankruptcy that allows people in crisis to make a fresh start and insists on squeezing blood from turnips.

Just days ago, the Republicans passed an energy bill that does little to reduce dependence on oil and handed over billions in tax breaks, despite the federal deficit of $300 billion, to very rich and profitable oil companies.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the new law does not promote renewable energy, disregards global warming, and even raises the risk of nuclear terrorism. 'For the third time in four years, Congress is on the brink of passing an energy bill that will pollute our air and water while costing the average consumer more money,' said Alden Meyer, Director of Strategy and Policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists just before the bill passed.

Commenting on concerns over gasoline and heating oil bills that are increasingly difficult to afford, Meyer added, 'This bill does virtually nothing to relieve the twin energy burdens on energy consumers – high gasoline prices and high home energy costs – and adds insult to injury by jeopardizing the security of every American.'

Because both houses adopted different final version of the bill, it went to a conference committee. While there, Republican leaders from the House, including Tom DeLay, stripped the renewable electricity standard from the final bill. The renewable standard passed the Senate with bi-partisan support and would have required major electric companies to increase sales of electricity from renewable sources gradually by 2020.

The bill provides massive tax breaks to wealthy corporations and contains provisions that will create conditions for increasing oil consumption. 'At the same time,' Meyer concluded, 'the energy bill ignores conventional technology that could increase fuel economy, generate hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and save consumers billions at the pump.'

Earlier in the session, the Republican leadership proudly claimed victory with a highway bill larded with wasteful and unnecessary projects. According to the conservative budget watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, 'The fact that these projects are concentrated in the hands of a few powerful members of Congress only underscores the fact that transportation pork is bad transportation policy, and terrible fiscal policy.'

The razor thin passage of the highly controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) raised the ire of labor unions, environmental organizations, and other concerned groups. The measure passed by 1 vote in the House, including 15 Democratic supporters. CAFTA will extend to Central America the disastrous job loss and environmental damage caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. workers lost more than 1 million jobs and real wages in Mexico have fallen as a result of NAFTA in the past 11 years, according to the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

While it is true that even if the Democrats had unanimously voted against it, the Republican leadership would have kept the vote open as long is it took to threaten, cajole, bribe, and punish its own until 217 votes came in, anti-CAFTA forces have promised to remember those Democrats who have consistently voted against the interests of working families. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. 'Anyone of either party who gets labor’s support should be ashamed' for their vote against working families, said Sweeney.

The last business of this session included the votes to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act. During debate in both houses, amendments containing civil rights protections, which were demanded by several hundred local organizations and constituencies worried about severely weakened civil rights, were adopted. The Democrats, who provided lists of abuses by federal authorities using the PATRIOT Act, supported the reauthorization when amendments containing the limited protections were included. The adopted amendments raise standards by which federal authorities can conduct secret investigations.

Since the bills are different, a final version will be hammered out in conference committee where many critics believe the meager protections added will be removed. Republican leaders who don't want to embarrass the President by admitting that civil rights need to be protected will simply delete the provisions over the will of the majority of Congress and the people.

For their consistent votes on the side of the Bush/Republican agenda, some Democrats have earned the ire of Democrat-affiliated organizations. The Campaign for America's Future conducted an extensive 'search' last Friday to track down 6 Democrats 'that went missing when it came time to stand up for hard working people across America,' says the organization’s press statement. The group distributed pictures of the members they say have voted too often for the Bush agenda on 'milk cartons' to more than a half million people on the Internet and to congressional staffers outside Capitol Hill subway stations Friday morning.

The 6 'missing' Democrats are Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. All 6 voted for the bankruptcy legislation, tort legislation that weakens victims' rights, CAFTA, the energy bill and the PATRIOT Act.



--Reach Joel Wendland at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.