Democrats Fail in No-Confidence Vote against AG Gonzales

American humorist Will Rogers said back in the 1930s, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” A lifetime later, the Democrats in Congress are proving that, even when they do get organized enough to act, they can’t quite seem to get anything done. The latest example of their ineptitude is their failure to get a meaningless “no-confidence” vote against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales through the Senate. Maybe if they tried something less symbolic and more useful, they wouldn’t look so much like a party of collaboration when they fail.

Under the American system, there is no provision for a vote of no confidence in an official. The resolution in the Senate was a nonbinding measure that merely expressed that the AG no longer enjoyed the support of the upper house. Had it passed, Mr. Gonzales would still be in charge of the Department of Justice. It would, however, embarrass him and the White House, and perhaps, backers hoped, it would shame him into quitting. And if not, it would be useful in the upcoming political campaign.

After six years, it is quite clear that it is impossible to shame this White House or this Attorney General. Worse, not a single independent voter would be swayed to back a Democrat based on such a vote. So, at best this was an empty gesture. But that assumes it would pass. In the end, Senate procedure stopped it. Although a few Republicans senators voted with the Democrats, they couldn’t get the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring the resolution to a final vote on the Senate floor. So, the Democrats managed to shoot themselves in the foot by failing to pass a meaningless resolution.

Failure in legislatures needn’t mean defeat, but in this particular instance, the Democrats needed something more serious than a no-confidence vote. If the Attorney General really did meddle in the firing of 8 US Attorneys, then he broke the law, and that is an impeachable offense. Impeachment would have proven a certain degree of seriousness. It is unlikely that he would have been tossed out of office, but the image of him under oath in an impeachment hearing day after day would far more effectively wound him and the White House. And if they really had the goods on him, the GOP couldn’t very well support him on national television when the evidence came out.

Of course, this is the same Democratic Party that got elected to end a war and then decided to fund it. This is the same Democratic Party that earned the votes of millions who were fed up with ethics problems in Washington and then decided it couldn’t pass an anti-corruption bill that prevented members of Congress and their aides from waiting 2 years (the length of a congressman’s term) before joining lobbying firms. It’s the same Democratic Party that got elected to replace free trade with fair trade, and looks to be about to cave into the White House on bilateral trade deals with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

Although they have decided to hold their next convention in Denver, Colorado, it might be more appropriate for the Democrats to hold it elsewhere, say Vichy, France.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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