Adjournment as a Campaign Strategy
2006-10-03
Source: CQ Politics
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rss feedNow that the 109th Congress has wrapped up its pre-election work and lawmakers have dashed home and hit the campaign trail, even the most attentive voter might wonder what, exactly, it is that's been wrapped up.
The list of failures has been longer, and far more memorable, than the list of successes: No broad overhaul of immigration laws, even though President Bush asked for one. No rewrite of lobbying and ethics laws, even though recent scandals prompted many Republicans to call for one. No total repeal of the estate tax, despite all the Republicans who wanted it. No increase in the minimum wage, despite all the Democrats and moderate Republicans who wanted it. No final action on the vast majority of the annual appropriations bills - the most basic job Congress has at this time of the year. And what was that Bush was saying about overhauling Social Security?
Lawmakers did accomplish one of the Republicans' two top goals in last month's single-minded focus on national security. Just before adjourning, they sent Bush a bill authorizing military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. But their other top goal, authorizing the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, went unfinished.
Rather than gambling on a few more last-minute accomplishments, lawmakers are heading home unusually early so they can campaign full-time to try to save their jobs. They'll come back the week of Nov. 13 to open a lame-duck session to finish things they could not get done before the election, but there are so many of those that they'll be lucky to get through the essentials, such as funding the rest of the government. If they're really lucky, they might be able to finish their work on the NSA bill.
So is this early adjournment a bad move? Should this exceptionally unpopular Congress try to redeem itself by staying into October to try to get more things done? The consensus among state and county party chairmen, strategists, former lawmakers and political analysts of both parties is: absolutely not. Going home and campaigning, they say, might be the smartest thing the endangered GOP majority can do.
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