NYT Rich: Our 'do-nothing' Congress substitutes 'publicity stunts for substance'

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday July 15, 2006

Our "do-nothing" Congress substitutes "publicity stunts for substance," according to New York Times columnist Frank Rich in his column slated for Sunday's edition, RAW STORY has found.

"Another, equally significant, part of the Bush legacy is already evident throughout Washington, and not confined to foreign policy or the executive branch," writes Frank Rich.

"Following the president's leadership, Congress has also embraced the virtual governance of substituting publicity stunts for substance," Rich continues.

Excerpts from Rich's Sunday Times column:

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Instead of passing an immigration law, this Congress has entertained us with dueling immigration hearings. Instead of overseeing the war in Iraq or homeland security, its members have held press conferences announcing that they, if not the Pentagon, have at last found Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (degraded mustard gas and sarin canisters from the 1980s). Instead of promised post-DeLay reforms, the House concocted a sham Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act that won't do away with the gifts and junkets politicians rake in from the Abramoffs of K Street. And let's not forget all the days devoted to resolutions about same-sex marriage, flag burning, the patriotism of The New York Times and the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Before long, Congress will be leaving on its summer vacation," Bob Schieffer of CBS News said two weeks ago. "My question is, how will we know they are gone?" By the calculation of USA Today, the current Congress is on track to spend fewer days in session than the "do-nothing Congress" Harry Truman gave hell to in 1948. No wonder its approval rating, for Republicans and Democrats together, is even lower than the president's. It's not only cowboy diplomacy that's dead at this point in the Bush era, but also functioning democracy as we used to know it.

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TIMES SELECT SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ FULL RICH COLUMN AT THIS LINK