As Republicans continue playing politics -- such as persuading a Democratic congressman from Louisiana to register as a Republican shortly before the election filing deadline on Friday -- Democrats are returning to Washington Tuesday to talk about national security issues.
“It's a historic opportunity to enact into law the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission,” Rep. Jim Turner of Texas, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, told me during the Democratic convention, when he thought Republicans would be joining the Democrats this week. “The report gives us momentum we needed to retain a sense of urgency.”
(Turner, by the way, knows the need for urgency. Whatever work he wants to do on the report has to get done this year, as he opted not to run for Congress again after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay redrew Turner's district lines to cost him his job.)
Rep. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, who serves on the HouseArmed Services Committee, was just as impassioned. “I don't think we have any choice,” he told me. “We have to go back and pass legislation and we have to do it this year.”
“Whether it helps or hurts John Kerry is irrelevant,”he added. “We need to take action.”
And retired Gen. Wesley Clark told a panel on nationalsecurity and terrorism at the convention, “The U.S.people demand the right degree of security at home.There is no excuse for failing to take action rightnow.”
The response from Republicans is that the House willreturn when it's scheduled to return, after Labor Day.Its leaders are spending part of this week in Texas,according to CongressDaily. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert,Majority Whip Roy Blunt, and National RepublicanCongressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds willcampaign for Republicans challenging Democrats in someof the seats where DeLay wasn't able to removeDemocrats through redistricting.
Meanwhile, a new report in Time shows that the Democrats' urgency is justified. “This is looking more like the real deal every day,” a top intelligence official told the magazine.
It's worth pointing out that the nation probably wouldn't have had a 9-11 Commission report if the administration had had its way. “The families are the reason why we got a 9-11 Commission,” Meehan told the panel, noting 32 people from his district died that day. If the White House was more concerned about preventing future attacks rather than just trying to cover itself, the commission could have started its work sooner and released its report sooner -- giving lawmakers more time to digest its findings and move ahead with real reforms.
The idea that Congress will have adequate time toaddress this issue in September -- along withcontentious, must-pass appropriations bills -- isridiculous on its face. Lawmakers haven't been able topass much legislation, including an energy bill,class-action lawsuit reform, a transportation bill, oreven a budget this year. Should Republicans decide tolook like they are doing something about the stalledeconomy, that's even less time that will be availableto tackle intelligence issues.
And it's not as though Republicans and Democrats, orCongress and the administration, will necessarily beon the same page, either. The intelligence reformprocess could well be a slow and partisan one. As Rep.Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who serves on the ArmedServices Committee, told me, “While it should becollaborative, it probably won't be.”
With Congress headed toward a lame-duck session after the Nov. 2election, some say that that will be the best time for lawmakers to addressintelligence reform. Members plan to spend themonth of October on the campaign trail.) But much ofthe intelligence released publicly points to apossible attack before Election Day -- making a lame-duck session on preventing attacks somewhat meaningless.
If the past is any guide, Congress will still haveplenty of other legislative issues to contend with ina lame-duck session, so it's not as though theNovember calendar is wide open. Furthermore, puttingoff intelligence reform until January guarantees thatit will compete with the initiatives of the newlyelected president, whoever he is.
The fact that the 9-11 Commission Report topped thenon-fiction paperback bestseller list in The NewYork Times Sunday Book Review should tell lawmakers that voters are not only concerned about this issue; they're willing to invest their own time and money to learn more about it. If they see that their representatives aren't doing much about it, they may have little patience for those lawmakers come Election Day.
Mary Lynn F. Jones is online editor of The Hill. Hercolumn on Capitol Hill politics runs each week in theonline edition of The American Prospect.
