Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Hooray for the New Congress

This is the first time since I've been old enough to know that I have been proud of my Congress. I don't care about the pork, I don't care about the fact that the Prez promised to veto the war spending bill before they even drafted it.

This Congress took a principled stand on the most important issue of the day, and used all the tools they had to make it happen. I'm proud of them.

I am, however, confused about the reaction of the mainstream press. Every story I've read or heard about regarding the bill seems to make the assumption that the President's anticipated veto is not only inevitable but is somehow the Congress' responsibility. That somehow they should have crafted a bill that would both satisfy the public that elected them and the President, without any kind of compromise on his part.

But as far as I remember, the Legislative and the Executive branch are equals, so why doesn't the President have to compromise and the Congress does? The entire country (no, the entire world) know that the President was wrong in his execution of the supposed "war", and yet when the Congress finally expresses the will of the people of the United States, as they should, they are excoriated by our own press.

This is the main stream media that went along with the personal destruction of President Clinton by his political enemies, and the one that allowed George Bush to push his reactionary and constitution-weakening agenda without fear of criticism.

I'm damn sick of it.

3 comments:

Ms. Rachel said...

The way I see it the Congress more directly represents the wishes of the people than does the President. I think in the last 6 years parts of Congress, the media and a fair amount of people have forgotten that. When I have a problem with something I write my Congressman not the President. I at least know with them someone might read it.

Batmensch said...

I agree. And I don't want to hear any more "They're all the same" and "I can't do anything" comments; the Congress is our tool to control the government, learn to use the damn thing! ;)

Batmensch said...

Agh. I was so wrong about them. Utterly spineless. Maybe Obama will finally lead them to some greatness.