There's no change like ... no change

For those of you who are tired of the “do-nothing” Congress of recent years ... get ready for two more years of the same.

A major reason why the current Congress has been unable to pass much significant legislation is that Republicans – despite having the majority in both houses – haven’t had a big enough majority, particularly when it’s concerned breaking Democratic filibusters. The next Congress will face essentially the same situation, the only difference being the reversal of parties – Democrats, despite having the majority in both houses, won’t have a big enough majority, particularly should Republicans decide to filibuster. Furthermore, should Democrats be able to pass any legislation through Congress, they’ll have to convince the opposition’s leader, President Bush, to add his John Hancock to it. Good luck with that. I have a feeling that the president with the fewest vetoes in history will soon begin racking them up. Congress, of course, can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds supermajority ... but I’m not sure that two-thirds of Congress can agree on anything these days.

Then there’s the yet-to-be-named “new direction” for Iraq that Democrats have been touting. Right now it’s a toss-up for which thing is most mysterious: the secret at the heart of ABC’s hit drama Lost, or this “new direction” for Iraq. I’d love to comment on the Democrats’ plan for that transitioning country, and I will ... as soon as they get around to figuring it out.

So the net result of this election? A rearrangement of the major parties, but the same low level of efficiency; the replacing of the party of the flawed Iraq plan with the party of no Iraq plan; the downfall of a party that wasted its mandate and the revival of a party that won primarily by default.

Make no mistake: Democrats won this election because Republicans shot themselves in the foot, not because Democrats had better ideas (they had few ideas at all, actually). And the only mandate from the American people in this election is a yet-to-be-named change in Iraq, which hardly comprises a resounding call for broad-based change in our nation. Yes, I know that there was some squawking about recent Republican scandals, and I’m sure that most Americans agree with me when I say that I want to see a scandal-free government, but no one with intellectual honesty can look me in the eye and say that the Democratic Party is now or will be without scandal (think Harry Reid and William Jefferson, for starters). A new breeze blowing in Washington? No. Just the same breeze blowing over a different pile of garbage.