But what can Congress do?

Written by: Larry Davis on Nov 1, 2007 6:20 PM EDT

Two columns in the Washington Post today discuss the plight of Congress...

"Congress and Iraq: A New Plan"
( http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/10/congress_and_iraq_a_new_plan.html#more )

"Nancy's Committee of One"
( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103102559.html )

The Question is asked: "But what can Congress do?" Ah...

How about its job as the Legislative branch of our system of checks and balances?

Of course I am ASSUMING that they have read the Constitution of the United States of America...

Maybe something like High Crimes and Treason just might have some relevancy to the current situation? Of course the Constitution only works if you actually decide to use and enforce its provisions when and where applicable!

In another Washington Post column today: "Nancy's Committee of One" -- Robert D. Novak bemoans that Pelosi; "... the 67-year-old grandmother from San Francisco is referred to as the "Committee of One" who rules the House;" and, "Ruling absolutely does not mean all Democrats think she rules well."

Just what is the relevance of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's Age and fact that she is a Grandmother has to do with Novak's diatribe is beyond me...

Perhaps this perspective derives from some sort of personal Anxiety over Dominant Mothers or some form of Androcentrism.

"Androcentrism takes male values or practices as the norm, and then explains female values or practices as deviations from, or unsuccessful aspirations towards male ways of doing things." - Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Interestingly Novak characterizes the resolution on the 1915 Armenian genocide as an; "episode [that] suggests a Pelosi decision has to approach the brink of disaster before Democrats speak out" when the current Administration is on the eve of launching another war of questionable legality, this time against Iran...

Which would pose the disaster, condemning genocide or starting another military conflict with the potential to result in another world war?

But perhaps Robert Novak has in fact unwittingly hit upon a real concern among many Democrats today...

"... animals [that] have been relatively well protected by their dominant mothers, and when they get to the chaotic outside world and have to fend for themselves, reading the situation and deciding whether or not to be aggressive, and how to handle many other problems, they probably just don't know what to do." - Ned Kalin, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Health Emotions Research Institute.

Maybe this actually explains the inability of the Democratic majority in Congress to effectively take on the current Administration who thinks they are above the law like Robert D. Novak? The coddled Democrats just don't know what to do...

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