Democrats Signal Resignation In Last Days Of The 111th
Yesterday was one of a very limited number of remaining chances the Democrats in Congress have to salvage the reputation of the 111th Congress. These are the final days in which the House Democrats can act as the majority party.
If the Democratic Party had a confident sense of direction, we would see the House Democrats taking advantage of the little time it has left, working long days and trying to pass as much important legislation as possible. That’s not the Democratic Party we saw yesterday. The Democrats in the House yesterday signaled resignation.
The legislative day began at 2:00 PM. That’s typical after a vacation break. The legislative day ended at 2:59 PM. That’s not typical.
One bill of middling significance was considered: H.R. 5712, the Physician Payment and Therapy Relief Act. Debate was shelved for this bill, however, as it’s not very controversial. The bulk of the time was spent moving forward a pair of bills to rename post offices, and one resolution purporting to promote a day of awareness that already came and went two months ago.
The Democrats don’t appear to be gearing up for a fight to retake the House in the 2012 elections. They aren’t setting up an agenda of opposition, or reinforcing stands they’ve made over the last two years. They’re just going through the motions of their work without much care, tapping their toes until they’re allowed to take a long winter nap.
[...] a whole, yesterday’s short blip of work in the House of Representatives was a sad expression of resignation on the part of the Democrats. There was one noteworthy exception to the generally passive [...]