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Now
While Republican vultures hover
shamelessly over the hospital where Sen. Tim Johnson, the South
Dakota Democrat remains in critical condition following emergency
brain surgery, progressives are in a lather worrying that if
Johnson doesn't recover, or if he dies, South Dakota's Republican
governor would appoint a Republican to finish out his term, handing
control of the U.S. Senate back to the just ousted Republican
Party.
There were fears of the same
possible outcome back in early November, when pseudo-Democrat
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), defeated in an August primary for
his party's nomination, succeeded in winning re-election running
as an independent. It was feared-and to some extent is still
feared-that Lieberman could jump over to the GOP in January,
handing Republicans control of the Senate. Lieberman has played
this fear like a virtuoso violinist, wresting a promise that
he will chair the Homeland Security Committee in the 110th Congress
if he stays in the party fold.
Progressives should take a
deep breath and relax, though. The truth is, all this angst is
really just about Democratic Senators looking to maintain their
own newfound power and their own marketability to the big donors
who they hope will fill their campaign coffers. If they lose
control of the Senate, and don't get to chair all those committees
and subcommittees, they don't get the big bucks.
But from a policy standpoint,
it matters little whether Republicans or Democrats control the
Senate-at least these days. In fact, not to wish ill to Sen.
Johnson, but we might be better off if the Democrats ended up
back in the role of opposition.
Consider:
With a majority of one, and
a Republican president, the Senate cannot hope to pass any kind
of significant legislation. If Senate Democrats somehow managed
to pass something like a minimum wage bill on their own, it would
just get vetoed by the president. Of course, they could try to
win over enough liberal Republicans to pass veto-proof legislation,
but then, they could do that whether they were in the majority
or the minority.
A Democratic-run Senate could
do investigations of course, but given the infamous timidity
of the party's Senate leadership, it seems unlikely that they
will do anything substantial in that regard anyhow. And besides,
the House, where the Democratic majority is more solid, can handle
the investigation business better.
In control of the Senate, Democrats
will simply open themselves to charges, in the 2008 campaign,
of being obstructionist and negative, because they won't be able
to accomplish anything of substance. In opposition, they would
be in a powerful position, with 50 votes, to block any bad Republican
legislation or bad nominations to judgeships or government offices,
but because they would be in the position of opposition party,
no one would blame them for being obstructionist-opposition and
obstruction would be their official role.
More important, in the role
of opposition party, Democratic Senators would be freer to be
themselves. There would be far less pressure from corporate interests
to temper their views and to move to the center or to the right
than they are getting now as the ruling party.
The point is, it's one thing
to have a majority of one in the legislature when your president
is of the same party, but it's another when you have a one-vote
majority and the president is from the other party. In the latter
case, the opposition party, despite being in control, is incapable
of accomplishing anything over the president's opposition, and
thus the pressure to compromise becomes almost irresistible.
And Democrats, with little in the way of ideological grounding,
have long been all too ready to compromise away important issues
and principles and to play footsie with the president. Just look
at them signing on to a continued war in Iraq, with even more
troops. Look at them refusing to defend habeas corpus and to
oppose torture. Look at them calling for even bigger defense
budgets. Look at them signing on to the NSA's warrantless spying
operation. (Incidentally, Sen. Johnson himself has been quite
the backer of Republican positions, voting for the Republican
budget in 1998, supporting a flag-desecration amendment to the
Constitution, voting in support of eased restrictions on cell
phone tapping, voting in favor of tightening consumer bankruptcy
laws, and voting to expand the death penalty and to limit habeas
rights of death penalty prisoners. Johnson has been one of Bush's
most ardent backers of the Iraq war among Democrats, and has
been a big recipient of funds from Parsons Corp., one of the
biggest corporate war profiteers in Iraq after Halliburton.)
We're not going to see Democratic
Senators taking principled stands on progressive issues until
they know that they are stuck in the role of opposition party.
So let's wish Sen. Johnson
a speedy recovery, but progressives needn't fret if he has to
step down.
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
