John Boehner's post-vote appearance yesterday showed a man who has not earned his position in Congress or in political leadership. It's not just that Boehner failed to keep his troops in line, it's that he reveals himself to be a political (and moral) midget. Politico says this morning that Boehner may be losing his job as a result of his role in yesterday's debacle.
Boehner isn't the only one who should lose his job. The line stretches far beyond eight years and across the party divide. One of the reasons I left the Democratic party was its drift -- not just to the right but towards an embrace of power without substance. A common symptom of how many of us feel has been the inability to just listen to our leadership. How many of us have actually been able to listen to George W. Bush giving a speech? Not many. Is this just partisan crabbiness? Not. For every Bush there's a quick!-grab-that-remote Pelosi. For every Boehner there's a switch-him-off Rahm Emanuel.
Meanwhile -- have you noticed? -- the focus of the bailout story is Congress, the administration, and failing banks. References to "main street" are made in an almost offhand way. Hey! we're out here and we're voting and we're increasingly aware than no bailout bill passed by this Congress and signed by this president will give us full rights or sufficient recompense. Nor do we see anything like relief on the horizon for the panic we're feeling as we experience the drop in value in our retirement funds, the unreliable and predatory nature of the banks holding our debt, and the stony deafness of our elected representatives. The New York Times' editors write:
"In the bill rejected on Monday, the unlimited powers that the Treasury Department had initially sought were curbed, and Congressional oversight was added. But judicial review of Treasury’s purchases was not adequately ensured. The courthouse door was not closed entirely; lawyers could still seek effective remedies for actions that violate the Constitution. But that’s a much higher hurdle than the already formidable barriers in place to discourage lawsuits against the government.
"Homeowners were also given short shrift with provisions that mainly urged lenders and the Treasury to do more to help them. That’s unconscionable. The financial crisis is as much a problem for homeowners as for Wall Street investment bankers. Appeals to lenders’ better natures have not worked to bring lasting relief to homeowners. If they are still not working in the coming months, Congress will have to revisit the issue.
"Taxpayer protections are also iffy, such as a requirement that in five years, the president must give Congress a plan for recouping any losses from financial firms. What will happen then is anyone’s guess. Lawmakers could decide at that point that taxpayers are the only pit bottomless enough to absorb those losses."
Of course, taxpayers are also voters. And, speaking of bottomless pits, many of us are already hard at work digging bottomless pits to drop our Congressional representatives into at earliest opportunity.
