Effective Leadership! (Sarcasm intended)

The voters spoke for Congress to get something done! I'm sure that going forward we are going to see a tremendous amount getting down and dirty to get things accomplished! I'm sure that those that were re-elected will start during the lame duck session to really show voters that we elected the right people for the Senate and House of Representatives!

I'm sure that the big things that are on the peoples' minds will be the first priority. I'm sure that tax cuts will be addressed immediately. Job's and unemployment benefits will be addressed immediately. After all, there is only 2 weeks left in this session of Congress and we need to get right to work. I'm sure the leadership will want to start on day one with an agenda and an inspirational speech to pump up our Senators to get things done quickly!! GO TEAM!!

All the attention is on Harry Reid to set the tone for this, perhaps, the most important lame-duck session of Congress in decades. Will it be agenda setting? Will it be a message of bipartisanship and Senatorial work ethic? I know it will! After all, this race for Harry was a little too close for comfort, and he won only because his opponent was less than formidable. Surely Harry got the message!

Sorry, Nevada voters. The big opportunity to change things up has gone to hell and your native son has screwed you (and the rest of us) over yet again. Harry's six minute snoozer to start arguably one of the most important lame-duck Senatorial sessions in decades was to waste the peoples' time talking about a football rivalry between Boise State and Nevada. I guess once you've secured another 6 year term in the Senate, your sense of urgency on behalf of the people is minimized. Sharon Angle, at least wouldn't be setting the agenda for Upper House of Congress.

This is just an example of the fundamental problem with the leadership in Congress. A problem that is too abstract for the voters to actually be able to address. Only our elected officials can really fix it, yet they refuse to go against the power structure. Why is it that just because a member has been in Congress has been in office the longest (and perhaps has been corrupted the most) that he or she should have the most power. Cases in point - Speaker Pelosi, Leader Reid, Leader McConnell, Speaker-Elect Boehner, Hoyer, etc.

None of these people are hearing our voices. Pelosi is governing our country and setting the agenda as if the entire country has the demographics and ideology of San Francisco. As long as the House continues to elect her Speaker or Leader, there is no chance that this will ever change. It is nothing more or less than cowardice in the ranks of the Democratic House Members. The lone standout was the bravery of Congressman Schuler.

Another example is Steny Hoyer. Congressman Hoyer is completely out of touch and is now advocating to reduce the pay for our fighting men and women in the armed forces. He obviously can't tell the difference between overpaid federal bureaucrats and the brave men and women putting themselves in harms way. Dear Mr. Congressman - you can freeze federal employee pay raises without freezing the men and women's raises that are dying for us overseas. WAKE UP!

Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader in the Senate, who is not able to articulate any argument and continues to give fodder to the far left by stating his only goal is to make sure that President Obama is defeated in 2012. Sounds like a partisan hack who is unable to work across the aisle for the American Peoples' goals. WAKE UP! Your number one goal is the economy and jobs! Did the election mean nothing to you, either?

What could have been a great start to a historic Congress is what we hoped it would not become - a quagmire led by incompetence on both sides of the aisle.

mR

Here's a 2 min clip of the 6 minute speech. At least with Sharon Angle, this could have been entertaining. Wake me up when this is over. On second thought, wake me up in 2012.

Photos courtesy of AP, Alex Brandon and Manuel Balce Ceneta

YouTube Video courtesy of Harry Reid, US Senator for Nevada

One Equals Two

Nancy Pelosi among other of our fearless members of Congress decided on a recent fact finding trip to play diplomat to Syria, even delivering a message to the Syrians from Israel. Simple enough. One would think. Last time I read the Constitution the Executive Branch of the federal government was responsible for diplomacy and foreign policy. We'll I've been wrong before. She was chastised by the president for going and then by the Israelis for screwing up the message. Come to find out, our foreign policy is not to negotiate with terrorists or terrorist nations. Hmmm--Hamas, Hezbollah, terrorists sponsored by Syria.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that a single trip by democrat and republican lawmakers, led by the Speaker of the House, totally tried to reverse U.S. foreign policy. But it's OK, the 911 Commission said so. Huh?

Cut to this week....

Secretary Rice this week went to Egypt to an Regional "help us fix Iraq" conference which included diplomats from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and other nations. In the process, Rice did take the time to discuss Iraq issues with her Syrian counterpart.

OH MY GOSH! Condoleeza did the same thing that Nancy Pelosi did! You could see the left wing pundits turning red with excitement! Some of them even blogged about it. Some of them even spewed that crap all over cable news! Damn her! See--Republicans are doing it too!

Wait a minute....

Did I miss something? Last time I checked it was the Executive Branch's prerogative to change it's foreign policy when things weren't working. Didn't the State Department say a few months back that if paths crossed, then the U.S. would discuss specific issues with these terrorist states? You would think the gotcha crowd on the left had just found Deep-Throat. The difference is this--Secretary Rice is the chief diplomat for the United States. The president can approve or deny any action that the Secretary is going to do in reference to U.S. foreign policy. That is his/her job. Last time I checked, madame speaker's job was to keep the House of Representatives in order and work on legislation--not conduct foreign policy.

Next time maybe the speaker will realize that diplomacy on the professional level is best left to the professionals. She taught the Syrians and any future terrorist nation (i.e. Iran) a very dangerous lesson.

The Lesson:

If you want to talk with an Senior U.S. official and they aren't paying attention to you, all you have to do is open your borders to terrorists so that they can get into a country involved in a conflict with the United States to fight and kill American soldiers. All you have to do is continue to hold out long enough and keep your agents fighting long enough, keep sponsoring suicide bombings long enough and the Speaker of the House--third in-line to the presidency-- will make a personal appointment, listen to what you have to say, take a few photos with you, and legitimates your cause to the world, giving hope and life to your effort.

What I don't understand is that some Democrats and some Republicans just seem to be purposefully undermining this country's effort to do something good in this world. They can only be doing it because they are 1) ignorant of what they are doing, or 2) purposefully undermining this effort. To do this at a time when our soldiers and marines are in harm's way is unfathomable to me. Congressmen and women are elected to represent the people of the United States in the United States. Their place in this is in approving and denying funding and in confirming or denying the Secretary of State and other Executive Officers that represent us overseas. That's it, nothing less, nothing more.

Madame Speaker, we are weaker today because of you.