11% approval rating for Congress is understandable

With Habeas Corpus and the Webb Hagel amendments denied a vote (as well as a denial for representation for Washington D.C.), I felt a great flood of despair that as Americans we have lost our way. Only 11% of Americans think Congress is doing anything useful:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

What on earth are the Democrats doing in Congress? Or not doing?

Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof reminds us:

While I agree with Bryan that this was more a bit of drama than is was genuine legislation -- he notes that if you really want to get something attached to a bill, do it to the House appropriations bill and force it to a vote in conference -- it does bring home the point that the Democrats are willing to put up a measure that would in turn measure the Republicans as far as their loyalty to the president is concerned. What this filibuster and the one before it on the reinstatement of habeas corpus make abundantly clear is that as far as the Republicans are concerned, political considerations -- i.e. don't embarrass the president -- take precedence.

There are those who say that the Democrats are wasting valuable time by putting up amendments and proposals that they know will lose. When you have an evenly-split Senate, it seems academic to try to pass something that will not get ten Republicans to go along with you and defeat a filibuster. You fight the fights you know you can win, they say. But you also fight the fights that need fighting, even if you know you will lose. At some point it's going to become breathtakingly clear that the Republicans are on the wrong side of this battle. Until then, the opponents of this tragedy should not rest.

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly points out that the media is avoiding showing the filibusters and the blocking of votes comes from the Republicans:

I see that Republicans have successfully filibustered two more bills today: one to give a House seat to the District of Columbia (57-42) and one to restore habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects (56-43).

[snip]

So, for the record, here are the votes. On the habeas bill, Democrats and Independents voted 50-1 in favor. Republicans voted 42-8 against. On the DC bill,

Democrats and Independents voted 49-1 in favor. Republicans voted 41-8 against. Would it really be so hard for reporters to make it clear exactly who's responsible for blocking these bills?

Meanwhile people are dying violently while we play this painstakingly slow Congressional chess game with the Republicans.

Could you guys hurry the fuck up and end this pointless war?

Strange, filibustering is not so bad when the Republicans do it

Wasn't it just called the nuclear option?

Thers of Whiskey Fire reminds us:

Another bill on Iraq dies in the Senate: this time Webb's bill on limiting the duration of deployments for service members in Iraq. The reason the bill failed, as have all the other Iraq bills, despite the fact that the Democrats control the Senate and the country overwhelmingly wants them to pass, is that they were filibustered.

There was a time in this country when the concept of the filibuster was roundly decried as anti-democratic. It was a dim and misty and faraway time. 2004.

[snip]

Yes, it's legislation and not appointments that are now being filibustered, but that's a minor distinction in the face of rhetoric like "the tyranny of the minority." That's especially the case when the Senate political minority is an American political minority: "7 in 10 Americans say they favor a policy to remove most U.S. troops from Iraq by April of next year.... The July 6-8, 2007, poll finds 62% of Americans saying the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq; 36% say it was not a mistake. This is the first time Gallup has shown opposition to the war exceeding the 60% level."*

What's amusing is not so much the GOP hypocrisy, which long ago lost its capacity to shock or surprise. It's the rather odd fact that the filibustering is getting scanty media attention (as Kevin Drum observes) -- particularly in contrast to the siren-blaring obsession with the "nuclear option" (teh scary!) back in the day.

Senator Webb is not playing by the rules

You know... the rules that Bush and Cheney worked so hard to set up where the Senate and the House can have as many earmarks and special projects as they want with a three day work week, raises once a year, and no vetoes ...just so long as they don't step out of line and demand the White House be accountable for anything....

Apparently Senator Webb did not get the memo:

Dear Secretary Rice:

During your appearance before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on January 11, 2007, I asked you a question pertaining to the administration’s policy regarding possible military action against Iran. I asked, “Is it the position of this administration that it possesses the authority to take unilateral action against Iran, in the absence of a direct threat, without congressional approval?”

At that time you were loath to discuss questions of presidential authority, but you committed to provide a written answer. Since I have not yet received a reply, the purpose of this letter is to reiterate my interest in your response.

This is, basically, a “yes” or “no” question regarding an urgent matter affecting our nation’s foreign policy. Remarks made by members of this administration strongly suggest that the administration wrongly believes that the 2002 joint resolution authorizing use of force in Iraq can be applied in other instances, such as in the case of Iran. I, as well as the American people, would benefit by fully understanding the administration’s unequivocal response.

I would appreciate your expeditious reply and look forward to discussing this issue with you in the near future.

Sincerely,

James Webb
United States Senator

Senator Jim Webb

does us proud.

Transcript here, and here is part:

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues - those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death - we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us - sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable - and predicted - disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.
Financially.
The damage to our reputation around the world.
The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.
And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

Update 1/24: Think Progress offers a point by point challenge to Bush's SOTU.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Senator Jim Webb

Reminding us what real governing involved:

"Keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2006, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) did more for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his first day in the Senate than the man he ousted, George Felix Allen, did in the entire previous Congress.

Going unnoticed in the frenzy of Democrats assuming control of Capitol Hill and George W. Bush seeking to plunge the country deeper into the Iraq quagmire, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II.