It's good to know the Senate isn't
squandering its time on banal issues like health care and immigration.
By Donald Kaul
Strange
things are happening in Washington.
In
the Senate, Rand Paul, the son of presidential candidate Ron Paul, recently
proved himself a chip off the old blockhead by conducting a one-man filibuster.
I’m
not talking about the namby-pamby sign-a-piece-of-paper-and-forget-about-it
filibuster in the modern style. I mean a real, old-fashioned, “Mr. Smith goes
to Washington” Jimmy Stewart filibuster — the kind where a senator takes the
floor and talks for hour upon hour to block a bill until he or she collapses or
has to go to the bathroom, whichever comes first.
The
issue in question was whether the president of the United States has the right
to order a drone-bombing of a U.S. citizen on American soil.
It
seems that a few days earlier Attorney General Eric Holder, when asked about
the legality of such bombing, said it was potentially feasible, given “an extraordinary circumstance in
which it would be necessary and appropriate” such as the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. Following Paul’s filibuster, Holder responded again, simplifying his answer to “no.”
It’s
good to know the Senate isn’t squandering its time on banal issues like health
care and immigration. It’s busy keeping us safe from the domestic use of drone
strikes.
By
the way, in the three months since the Newtown massacre, approximately 2,600 U.S. citizens have been killed on American soil by gun
violence. None by drones.
And
neither the full Senate or House has taken any action on guns.
Meanwhile,
back at the White House, President Barack Obama is waging a blistering charm
offensive to win over Republicans. (There’s been a good deal of criticism of
Obama over the years regarding his failure to buddy up to Republicans and get
them to stop filibustering everything.)
Well, he’s out there at last, courting Congress, inviting GOP
members over for dinner, playing golf with them (or trying to).
And
how do the conservative commentators who were so critical of his prior
aloofness react? By criticizing him for faking fellowship.
All
the while, the only organization less liberal than Congress’s Republican
caucus, the Vatican, is trying to choose a new leader. Its task is similar to
that of the Republican Party — choose someone who will look like the face of
change but won’t actually change anything.
Like
the Republican Party, the College of Cardinals contains virtually no liberals.
All the Popes since John XXIII have resolutely chosen conservatives as
Cardinals and the few leftover liberals that the Pope chose are older than 80 and can’t vote. (I thought the Church had run out of groups
to discriminate against, and now I find it practices age discrimination too.)
A
two-thirds majority of cardinals is required to elect a Pope, not unlike our
Senate where you need a 60-percent majority to break a filibuster. It’s a race
to see which institution has become more out-of-date, out-of-touch, and
out-to-lunch.
OtherWords columnist
Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. OtherWords.org