×
IT'S ALL OPTICS. Chris Hayes makes an interesting suggestion:
I think it would be pretty awesome if instead of going the legal route to try to impose accountability on the president and his cabinet, congress just started making more creative use of the power of the purse. So, for instance, how about a spending bill that significantly boosted combat pay for soldiers deployed in Iraq, while also reducing the salary of the Attorney General to minimum wage? Or minimum wage for the entire White House staff? My understanding is that congress can do this, or at least attempt to. Now, of course, you might say that they’ll never get the votes necessary to over-ride a filibuster or veto, but I think setting up a bill in which Republicans had to vote against an increase in combat pay for the sole reason that it would result in a pay cut for the attorney general would make for pretty good optics.One thing I wish Democrats had a better sense of is how much optics matter right now. If the Republicans will filibuster, and George Bush will veto, every proactive policy change they offer, then the achievable goal is not passing impressive legislation, but building popular support for a progressive agenda and making the opposition look obstructionist and myopic. But this doesn't seem to have penetrated with Senate Democrats. Reid grudgingly forced Republicans to spend a night of filibustering withdrawal -- but only a night. So the optics happened when everyone else was asleep. So far as I can tell, Reid did that to satisfy some progressives, and inconvenience the opposition. Since then, of course, we've passed...nothing, and even a bipartisan compromise to come closer to fully funding S-CHIP is facing a presidential veto. Reid seems very interesting in preserving time to Get Things Done, but that's not actually resulting in anything getting done, or in popularity for his caucus.--Ezra Klein
