Congressional Appetites: The other white meat.

Today is Senator Mary Landrieu's fifty-fourth birthday, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (the dim bulb from Searchlight, Nevada) has given her a special gift. The sun is shining in Louisiana because Marvelous Mary, the daughter of Moon Landrieu, has secured 300 million dollars in extra Medicare and Medicaid funds for the Bayou State. Reid wanted to avoid cloture on the so-called healthcare reform package, and to do so he needed at least 60 votes to move the legislation forward. The final bribe for Landrieu was three times that originally offered by Reid, and it proved sufficient. The measure to bring the bill forward for consideration passed 60 to 39. In Senator Landrieu's defense, she wasn't the only so-called moderate democrat whose faux angst and hand wringing made the ultimate outcome of the vote in doubt. Senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson from Nebraska publicly shared their reservations about the over broad healthcare package. We have not yet discovered what their payoffs are as of Monday morning (November 23rd).

The situation described above is not unique or abnormal. It happens quite often as congressmen attempt to move legislation through a variety of competing interests and ideological differences. The Landieu-Louisiana caper seems so over-the-top because of its size, because of the massive national debt, and because Senator Landrieu appears to openly and joyfully embrace it. In a nation of 300 million people (Sen. Landrieu got 1 dollar from each of us), it is reasonable to expect that there will be a vast array of wishes, needs and attitudes about how Congress should respond. Invariably, the ultimate outcome is less than satisfying, and the process for securing a majority becomes ugly. Deals are cut. Trades are made. Backs are scratched. The citizenry is screwed.

When one is in a position of power...particularly in the U.S. Congress, there are four words that can be used to illustrate the legislator's options when confronted with a vexing vote or issue. They are: party, pretense, pork (the other white meat), or principle. Some officials serve in order to enjoy the position, the paycheck and the benefits. Whatever the issue, they blindly follow the party line. They invest little thought or effort but rely on party guidance to determine their positions.

Those who use pretense as a public posture revel in the attention they receive for agonizing about a particularly difficult matter. They seem to thrive when the Klieig lights and microphones are present. They are flattered when news people ask them to analyze the subject at hand because their assumed aire of indecision is considered thoughtful and intelligent. They are proud to be one of the undecided ones.

The "porkers" are obvious. "Give me the gravy and get my vote." At some basic level the porkers are admirable. No b.s., no pretense, no blindly following the party. Their major weakness, though, is that generally the majority party is the only which how can deliver the pork. If the majority does not require the vote of the porker to pass a piece of legislation, then the porcine-loving legislator will not "bring home the bacon." Their effectiveness is limited.

Principles represent a basic belief and value system that the congressperson uses to assess legislation. They provide a template for measuring each and every bill. Principled legislators will not support measures that violate their standards. You will never hear a principled officeholder say that he or she is voting to move a bill to the floor so that it can be debated if she has determined it to be noxious. To the principled legislator...good is good and bad is bad. They do not go along to get along.

So, where does our birthday girl fit into this little lexicon of political motivation? For the party? Check. Agonizing, hand-wringing pretense? Check. Pork? Three hundred million checks. Principle? Nah. So, I guess that we can surmise that Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) is a pork sucking, drama-queen partisan with no principles. Unfortunately she's not alone. Happy birthday, Mary.

When one examines the fiscal nightmare that haunts the United States, the underfunded liabilities appear front and center.