VPs kaffeeklatsch #6 (and final)

By far the biggest disappointment for me was Edwards not addressing the extreme partisan strongarm tactics and trashing of legislative rules in the House of Representatives that resulted in the Medicare bill which Cheney trumpets so proudly. He didn't even respond to Cheney's mention of Zell Miller! Hello, Senator... are you listening? That sound is opportunity knocking!!!

Here’s the part of Cheney’s statement I’m talking about. It was in repsonse to this question:

> IFILL: ...you're going to inherit a very deeply divided
> electorate, economically, politically, you name it. How
> will you set out, Mr. Vice President, in a way that you
> weren't able to in these past four years, to bridge
> that divide?
>
> CHENEY: ...We used to be able to do more together on a bipartisan
> basis than seems possible these days. I'm not sure
> exactly why. I think, in part, it may be the change in
> the majority-minority status in the Senate has been
> difficult for both sides to adjust to.
>
> And the Senate, of course, has been very evenly
> divided, 50-50, then 51-49, then 49-51 the other way.
> We'll keep working at it.
>
> I think it's important for us to try. I believe that it
> is essential for us to do everything we can to garner as
> much support from the other side of the aisle as
> possible. We've had support -- we had our keynote
> address at our convention was delivered by Zell Miller.
> So there are some Democrats who agree with our approach.
>
> And hopefully in a second term, we'll see an
> improvement along those lines.

You’d better tell that to Tom DeLay, who is doing everything in his power to make sure that the House of Representatives is among the least democratic (both small “d” and capital “D”) places in our nation's Capital. The profound partisan divisions in Washington are in no small measure deepened by this cynical, unethical, legislative dictatorship. “All or nothing”, “with us or against us”... bellicose rhetoric and limiting of public debate is not the way to promote bipartisan cooperation or democracy.

Senator Edwards lets them all off the hook. He could have brought this derailing of our legislative traditions and rules into the white-hot light of national TV, but instead, he does this:

> IFILL: Senator, there's 90 seconds.
>
> EDWARDS: Thank you.
>
> The president said that he would unite this country,
> that he was a uniter, not a divider.
>
> Have you ever seen America more divided? Have you ever
> seen Washington more divided?
>
> The reality is it is not an accident. It's the direct
> result of the choices they've made and their efforts
> that have created division in America. We can do better
> than that in this country.
>
> Now I want to go back to the whole issue of health
> care,

WHAT??? Aw, man, you missed it. I don't think people really know what's going on in our Congress. I hope at some point in the domestic policy debate that Kerry addresses this issue. The general public most likely do not have a clue what a miscarriage of the democratic process is taking place in the House. They need to be made aware that terrorism is not the only danger our democracy is facing.

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