August in DC

It's always quiet (and hot) in DC during August. Quiet because Congress leaves town and when they do, so do many of the lobbyists who swarm around them. The roads are less crowded, you can find a seat on the metro, there's just a nice tone to the city - as the ones left are the people who actually work here & the tourists.

And where are all those missing Members of Congress? Well they're back with most of you - having gone back to assure their constituents of the fine work that they're doing. And why not. It's not as though there's much that needs taking care of this month. Especially since our Senate & House Democrats have decided to roll over & play dead to Busy & Co. Ann Telnaes' cartoon on the topic was impossible to resist sharing.

Now, as annoyed as I am with Congress as a whole, at least the Senate Dems have a small excuse for not doing anything useful. Their majority is pretty slim and guess who makes that 51-49 majority in favor of the Republicans most of the time? None other than good ol' Joe Lieberman, the "Independent" ex Dem from Connecticut. How on earth anybody in that state can look the rest of us in the eye having elected this fool is beyond me. Even when a simple majority could take an issue, the Republicans have been digging in with a "super-majority" parliamentary procedure that requires 60 votes instead of 51. No, I can't figure out why the Dems let them get away with that either.

In the House - well ... they did raise the minimum wage. Which was long, LONG overdue. But on the issue of Iraq? Failure after failure. What was so difficult about voters' instructions to END THE WAR NOW for them to understand?