Rising Partisanship Ties Up Congress

[gWbush is Mabus]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=4&u=/nm/20040416/ts_nm/campaign_congress_dc_2


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress returns from a holiday recess next week rife with political bad blood, making it increasingly tough to accomplish much this election year.
"Partisanship is at an all-time high," said Bruce Josten, a Capitol Hill lobbyist and an executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites). "Democrats and Republicans not only don't trust each other, they hold each other at a high level of contempt."
Amid such hostility, the Senate is largely paralyzed. Democratic roadblocks are lined up against dozens of judicial nominations, and there is also gridlock on stacks of legislation on matters ranging from energy to tort reform.
With control of the narrowly Republican-led Senate and House of Representatives at stake in the November elections, and polls showing the public split, both sides are jockeying for position as they swap charges and countercharges.


"To Democrats, (President George W.) Bush and his fellow Republicans are 'extremists,"' Josten said. "To Bush and Republicans, Democrats are 'obstructionists."'
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, told business leaders this month, "We're stuck."
Bush took office in January 2001, promising "to change the tone in Washington."
"He has. He has made it worse," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.
So far this year a divided Congress has sent little major legislation for Bush to sign into law, though the Senate gave final approval to a pension bill before recessing a week ago.
Other than must-pass spending bills, few significant additional measures -- perhaps a corporate tax bill and transportation legislation -- may be sent to Bush before the 108th Congress ends late this year.


WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR
Sweeping energy legislation as well as bills to revamp medical malpractice awards, ban taxes on Internet access fees and permit importation of less expensive prescription drugs are among the measures likely to be pushed back until next year when there will be a new Congress and perhaps a new president.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), an Arizona Republican, said, "I've never seen us in more partisan gridlock. I think it's because the campaigns have begun so early and have entered the Senate."
Ethan Siegal of The Washington Exchange, a private firm that tracks politics and legislation on Capitol Hill for institutional investors, said more than ever in Congress "the ultimate goal is power."
"Democrats' desire to get power back is so great, and Republicans' desire to keep power is so great that they sometime lose sight of the greater good," Siegal said.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said Democrats and their presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, "haven't produced anything but hate."
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, shot back: "There is no room for compromise, negotiations or working together in the Republican House .... This arrogant and autocratic rule is leading to abuses of power."

Adding to the rough-and-tumble atmosphere has been squabbling over Bush's handling of Iraq (news - web sites) and terror threats prior to Sept. 11, 2001 as well as some unrelated investigations.
One probe involves possible bribes on the House floor on behalf of an administration-backed prescription drug bill that narrowly won passage late last year.
Authorities are also examining an alleged threat to dismiss a federal actuary if he revealed what the bill might actually cost, drawing fire from some Republicans as well as Democrats.
The Senate's top law enforcement officer found that two Republican aides tapped into Democratic computer files, part of an apparent renegade effort to track opposition to Bush's most contentious judicial nominees.
"The Senate has become a dysfunctional institution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat who has been in the Senate since 1962. Added Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record) of California, "a mean-spirited one."

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1. Same can be said for the DU forums!

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