SHEA-PORTER’s FIRST 100 HOURS
Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 07:05AM by Peter Bearse Ph.D.
What should one expect of a new Representative who has been elected by the media, aided by their relentless onslaught regarding Bush and Iraq? Should one expect a proactive approach, like introducing a House bill to deny financing for a “surge”?, or mobilizing Congressional District (CD) constituents for anti-war demonstrations? Or voting like the previous go-along, get along Congressman, like a good Party regular? Or playing to the media to give people the impression that one is doing things for them?
The answer? -- the last two – the sorts of Congressional activity that has given the U.S. House of Representatives a bad name. Here in New Hampshire’s First C.D., a least, the 2006 Congressional elections have provided another round in the game of musical chairs. The music goes on but nothing has really changed. How sad -- voters sold another bill of goods by a media-made Member of Congress!
The evidence? Look at the Democratic Party’s “First 100 Hours” of accomplishment, including Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s votes to approve:
Ø new ethics rules
Ø implementation of several 9/11 Commission recommendations
Ø an increase in the minimum wage
Ø increases in federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research
Ø letting the government negotiate the price of prescription drugs under Medicare
What do these votes represent? Let’s look at each one.
The “new ethics rules” are a gloss or band-aid to cover the gaping, fundamental corruption of Congress. They try to lend a new aura of respectability to an institution that is still “the best Congress that money can buy.” Big money continues to dominate Congressional politics. Corporate lobbyists were buzzing around the heads of the Republicans. Now they’re buzzing around the heads of Democrats. Democratic fund raisers that include lobbyist invitees are already going on to pay off 2006 campaign debts and gather funds for 2008 reelection campaigns. The House is the house of big donors, not “the people’s house.” Nancy Pelosi and Carol Shea-Porter are peddling a false populism.
The 9/11 Commission Report was “dead on arrival” at the White House. Passage of a resolution to urge the “implementation” of the Report’s recommendations is nothing more than political posturing, especially since the Democrats had no plan for Iraq to present before, during and after the 2006 elections. A marker as to real performance by Rep.Shea-Porter on the Iraq issue? -- Call and ask whether she has introduced or co-sponsored a bill like that introduced on the Senate side by Ted Kennedy – a bill to withhold funding for the President’s “surge” of additional troops to Baghdad.
The “Yes” vote to raise the federal minimum wage also represents show and tell rather than a meaningful move. First, only 2.5% of the nation’s hourly workforce is affected and 1/4 of these are youth. Second, the attention paid to the issue obscures the fact that the Democratic majority has assigned lower priority to the far more important issue of another adjustment affecting the incomes of many more people – the “COLA” for Social Security payments to reflect true increases in senior citizens’ cost of living.
Shea-Porter and her fellow Democrats also postured on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. They seem to pretend to voters that their left-over good intentions are on the right side. They and their media allies overlook the fact that the vote insulted the moral sensitivities of many others, for no good reason. Scientists have found that stem cells to generate remedies for most major diseases can be extracted from many, non-embryonic sources, including placentas and amniotic fluids.
Asking the Federal Government to negotiate drug prices is another hypocritical farce, playing to the seniors’ gallery while providing nothing but fodder for media editorialists and talking heads. Leave it to Democrats to deny market forces, especially when the “force” they point to, the Federal Government, is not the one buying the drugs in question. Federal bureaucrats as price setters? Next stop: price controls?
Fellow economist Robert Samuelson calls all of this “The Politics of (made for media) Symbolism…mostly about gestures…long on self-promotion...not about hard choices.” So, people may well ask: When is the Congress going to stop playing the media game, move beyond ‘Reality TV’ and start producing real solutions to real, hard problems? When are Nancy Pelosi, Carol Shea-Porter and other Democrats, who now claim to be promoting a “people’s House” in Washington, going to inform and empower us rather than themselves?
Reader Comments (11)
As a Ph.D you know what a major premis is.
I assume to that you know that if your major premis is innacurate that all of the conclusions you draw based on that premis are likely to be innacurate.
So consider this: you call Carol Shea-Porter a media made member of Congress. That's your major premis.
If you really believe that Carol Shea-Porter was media made I have to wonder where were you last year. People in Siberia know that she came out of grassroots and direct contact with voters. The campaing barely had enought money for stamps never mind a media blitz!
So let me come to a rational conclusion about your article. Your premis is fatally flawed--it is based on shoddy research.
Similarly your conclusions are well --- wrong.
Do your homework before writing your next paper.
Why don't you get off your pompus beehind and run for office yourself? You might help clean the mess up. NC can spare you for a few years!
You should know that Ms. Porter is from a long line of conservatives, real conservatives, not like that corporate bunch of theives that call themselves conservatives. She has true values that will help to clean the mess up.
Mr. Proulx is correct, you really shouldn't expound on what you don't know.
You need to go back to school - but please tell us where you might be teaching. I want to make sure to get the word out that students and other attendees should wear a face filter to protect their lungs from the toxins and their noses from the smell, because it is very obvious that you are speaking through a bodily orifice that is not your mouth and you are thinking from a lower end intestinal organ instead of your brain.
Sign me,
Proud of Carol
Your wisdom and grace are fascinating.
Hmmm..the Union Leader? WMUR?
bwaaaahahahahaha
Given that Peter Bearse Ph.D has written a book about grassroots political organizing, one would expect a more incisive critique, instead of what sounds like a typical right wing response.
Apparently, he is disappointed that CSP has not single-handedly introduced new legislation to fix the budget deficit, solve the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and cure cancer. After all she has a full 3 weeks of experience under her belt! Time to get cracking.
Someone really should tell Mr.Peter Bearse Ph.D, a liitle bit about how Congress works, so he can cut CSP some slack. And while they are at it, explain to him that a legislator is not elected by the media, but by the people. Carol wasn't endorsed by most papers in the district, and was essentially ignored by a couple of powerful ones here. She won because she mobilized a large group of folks who were pushed to action by the actions of the President and the failures of Congress, including jeb Bradley, to act as a check on executive power.
Are you going to answer any of these comments?
When I commented I had no idea who you were. So I googled you. It's true ( as naughty pointed out) that you have written a book about grass root politics. I would think that Carol's Campaing would serve as an inspiration to you regardless of party and ideology.
What Carol did ( she was an "unknown with no money) has been viewd by grass root leaders from both sides of the aisle as a breath of fresh air. She has proven to both Rebublicans and Democrats that it is now possible to win withouth a few million dollars worth of media buys.
I would respectfully like to hear what you have to say on that.
And I have to thank everyone for not jumping on my spelling! If this was a spelling bee I'd be knocked off in the first round! You are all so kind!
Psycho-commie is too nice a word...
[If only Chaz could SPELL the word 'premise' eh?]
better get used to it!