Senator Kennedy recently wrote an article at Huffington Post. First he decried the Republicans for being the do-nothing congress. Then he applauded the Dems, calling them the "Do_Something Democrats." As proof, he touted himself for "dramatically reforming our education financing system" by introducing legislation to reduce student loan interest rates.
Making a decent education more affordable is a good thing. And I'm glad at least someone thinks members of congress can accomplish anything!
But I think it's a little early for that moniker, Mr. Kennedy. Your party took control of congress with grandios promises to make sweeping changes in the first 100 hours. Paramount on that list was ending the war in Iraq and raising the ethics bar in Washington. After all the negative screeching about Pres. Bush and his "lies and illegal war", all you could come up with was a SYMBOLIC statement against escalating the battle. How pathetic is that? Where is the bitter resolve we've been listening to for years?
And the ethics reform? A couple of small hoops for lobbyists to tiptoe through as they do their influence peddling dance around the halls of congress. What about ending the lobby entirely? What about making members of congress responsible for their actions?
How do you and the others in the new-improved legislature sleep at night? You make non-binding statements and minor changes to make yourself look good, and all the while you continue to pad your wallets with corporate money and turn your backs on your constituents and the young people dying overseas. Each time you pat yourselves on the back it makes a distictly hollow sound!
Do you really want to accomplish something? Get everybody together and put a stop to the war. Then permanently end the lobby and make profound ethical changes. Then put a stranglehold on corporate oil, drugs and tobacco. Do that, and you'll have the whole country behind you to accomplish all the other things we desperately need.
