Selling Legislative Action

02/17/2007

Paul Munnis


There is both good news and bad news in the Senate vote that failed in terms of sanctioning President Bush for a troop surge in Iraq. The Senate failed to get the sixty votes needed to add to the angst being levied on President Bush with the tally being 56-34 in favor of disagreeing with escalation of the Iraqi war. That four vote difference is as wide a chasm as the Grand Canyon itself.

No matter how you slice it or dice it though the majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq and want it to end. Both Parties and the President know it full well. That part of the communication is now fully accomplished.

The bad news was that the Senate action fell short by four votes while the good news is that government is working once again and both Parties now must negotiate to get anything that they want. There is no majority control and so politics must be revived as an art-form in the Congress.

Democrats can set the tone in the House but we need to fish or cut bait in the Senate in order to win legislative passage. Then we have to get Bush to sign-off to achieve final passage. By and large that is good news because political compromise is the only way to accomplish real worthwhile goals. We predict a resurgence of the fine art of statesmanship or else the two Parties will finish out the year just babbling to one another.

The public now expects the House to move ahead and cut off troop funding being aware that the Senate may defeat the legislation. They look to the Democratic controlled Senate leaders to persuade the GOP to vote for it. So the Democrat Party Caucus has their work cut out for them and they had better figure out how to make the sale to the GOP and to Bush. If they can’t sell it then it doesn’t belong on the legislative agenda.

As I recall the art of salesmanship both Parties to a sale have to see something in it of value to them or else the sale will simply not be made.

The other part of sales is that what is being peddled must be something worthwhile and of good value to both Parties. Choosing the proper legislation and finding the proper way to sell it is now the task of our Congress.

Let senior level politics begin and advance on the quality and merit of the sought after action.

In the meantime the GOP needs to caucus and admit to one another that they need to rebuild their Party and to do so Mr. Bush is a major liability to the GOP. Democrats need to caucus and carefully choose what they will sponsor for legislation in the days ahead. Mr. Bush needs to rebuild his Administration to end persistent failure. If either group fails at their task then a hard time will lie ahead for them and grid-lock will result.