John Carney’s Friendship Initiative – A Scorecard
John Carney decided to establish his street cred in Congress by building friendships with Republicans. It was the very heart of his brand-building first term. A daring strategy, and as it turned out, a stupid one.
On December 13th, when they break after only 6 work days in December, this Congress will go down in history as the worst Congress ever: most votes taken with the fewest laws passed.
In spite of a Senate bill that word have moved us toward a more just and economically viable system, we’ve had no movement on immigration reform. This congress could not even pass defense re-authorization, a bill that has been passed routinely by every Congress in the modern era.
Instead we’ve had 47 votes to defund the ACA, a government shutdown, and the signature achievement of this congress – sequester. It is just pitiful.
While Carney’s desire to make friends with Teabags may be rooted in a reading of history that puts a premium on “working together” and might have been viewed as a virtue in the past, there is no way to defend anything other than rugged and vocal resistance to the unhinged, anti-American misrule of the teaparty congress.
Republicans in Congress don’t need friends, they need determined enemies. Brute force is the only thing they understand. If the teaparty Republicans valued Mr. Carney’s willingness to compromise and work together, they would have done so. There was ample opportunity, and yet – time after time the Republican voted as a block. Calls for moderation and centrist rationality fell on deaf ears. No Republican was willing to be Mr. Carney’s partner in a stirring rendition of Kumbayah.
Perhaps Mr. Carney’s overtures were a noble experiment? If so, it was an experiment that failed. Time to move on to calling the Republicans out for what that are in no uncertain terms. If the strong critics teaparty don’t come from solidly blue states like Delaware – where there is no chance for a sitting Democrat to face a primary from either the left or the right – where will they come from?
John Carney still has a chance to build his brand in Congress as a strong defender of American values. While a willingness to compromise is one of the values we hold dear – so is a willingness to fight.
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While Carney’s desire to make friends with Teabags may be rooted in a reading of history that puts a premium on “working together” and might have been viewed as a virtue in the past,
“Working together” presumes that all parties have some shared goals and not being able to tell that the people on the other side of the aisle don’t much care about anything constructive — much less governing — seems a fatal misread by Carney here. Although I’ll stipulate that all of this destruction suits Mr. Carney just fine when it comes to trying to dismantle Dodd-Frank.
True. He has said that he opposes the reinstatement of Glass–Steagall, so there is no wondering where Carney stands on banking reform.
If we were talking about Carper, I’d view all of this bi-partisanship über alles as a con, to cover a conservative agenda. But I don’t think of Carney as that devious.
Mr 330 wrote:
If those statistics are accurate, I’d say that is a very good thing!
Yes and no. If the laws were some teabag chicanery, I’d agree with you. But since we are a modern industrialized democracy, and not a banana republic, there are items that need to be resolved by Congress.
Immigration reform and college loan rates are two areas of inaction that are costing taxpayers millions. Also, not addressing the infrastructure is going to cost us billions. Even someone like you can probably see that.
Dana,
Stopping patent trolls would be another item worthy of the passage of a bill. It could save the American taxpayers billions and help the economy.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/you-have-48-hours
If you don’t know what a patent troll is, Google it.
“If those statistics are accurate, I’d say that is a very good thing!”
All the evidence most of us need that it’s not a good thing.
Dana reminds me of a guy who fell into a pond and instead of trying to swim up to the top, decides to relax, hold his breath, sink to the bottom and just wait it out… That also would be a representation of how this past House of Representatives thinks.
And btw, Jason. that piece was very well written… i think you created a Neville Chamberlain dawning in all our minds.
Who in thew world is voting for “A” in that poll?
How many staffers does Carney have?