Can’t we all just get along? I mean really, what with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and David Obey (D-Wis.) shoving each other and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) breaking off non-existent budget talks with the Clinton administration. I thought lawmakers patched things up at that weekend retreat.
Seriously though, I’m glad all the early bipartisan babbling about making nice is out of the way.
Nothing has been accomplished so far this year and it’s been a sorry spectacle; you know, GOP and Democratic pols forcing smiles upon one another when their hearts are telling them they should be ripping out each other’s throats.
So here’s hoping sparks begin to fly soon on Capitol Hill. There’s important wireless business that needs attention: cloning, encryption, privacy, international satellite reform, antenna siting, digital wiretap, FDA oversight of WTR, spectrum auction management, universal service, etc.
There are signs things are getting back to normal.
Embattled House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has not been seen lately with Rev. Jesse Jackson, and owing to his smashing upstage of Vice President Gore in China and return to pseudo-scholarly conservative cackling, is looking more resurrected by the day. Gore took time out from White House campaign fund-raising calls to toast Chinese leaders who routinely imprison democratic dissidents and, when provoked, slaughter students.
Oh, but just you watch the Clintonites beg Congress and world leaders for most favored nation trade status for China and for China’s inclusion in the World Trade Organization.
Speaking of trade, which the Clinton administration is always ready to do with so much overseas wireless business up for grabs, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Miss.) is salivating over a fight with the White House (that’s code for 2000 Dem presidential favorite Al Gore) over whether Chile should be added to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
When we last met in 1993, the administration successfully fought off Gephardt and other Dems-demonized as protectionists-to win congressional approval for NAFTA.
Never mind, as Gephardt points out, that the agreement “simply isn’t working.” Why? Well, for one thing, U.S. trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have increased substantially under NAFTA. That means lost American jobs.
Truth is, when it comes to trade (a.k.a. fund-raising) policy, the administration has lost its moral compass.
