Redstate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Congress — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I thought that the Democrats were supposed to be in charge of both chambers. Then I read this report about the Senate's passage of a warrantless surveillance bill and I am not so sure:

"My Republican colleagues chose to rubber-stamp a flawed administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in the light of the administration's past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror," said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Ahem. The Republicans are in no position to "rubber-stamp" all that much nowadays, given the fact that they are no longer in the majority. Unless I am seriously misinformed, the fact that Harry Reid is referred to as the "Senate Majority Leader" would seem to indicate that it is the Democrats who are in the majority. How is it that the minority was able to rubber-stamp anything that the majority would disapprove of?

Well, read the following:

Sixteen Democrats and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined all 43 Republicans in supporting the measure, which is nearly identical to a proposal prepared by the Bush administration. "We're at war. The enemy wants to attack us," Lieberman said during the Senate debate. "This is not the time to strive for legislative perfection."

So in fact, Republicans didn't "rubber-stamp" anything. Rather, a bipartisan coalition voted for the warrantless surveillance bill. The Senate Majority Leader was . . . how shall one describe it? . . . misinformed.

Relatedly, I suppose that it is worth noting that a very politically weak President is still able to get this kind of result from the Senate. Perhaps that would tend to indicate that Congress is in an even more precarious political position than is the President--something all of the polls appear to bear out. This might well be remembered the next time there is a showdown about Iraq.