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Congressional Arrogance

What is the one defining characteristic of the current Republican Party? It can not be economic conservatism as the huge deficits and run away spending on pork barrel projects attests. It can not be personal rectitude as the foibles of some of its most prominent faces (such as William Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich) demonstrate. The Valerie Plame matter suggests that love of country does not always trump other interests for Republicans. It appears that the defining characteristic of the Republican Party is arrogance.

I am not sure why the GOP has evolved into the party of arrogance. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that during the 1990s, the two most prominent voices of the party were Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh. Few can match that pair for hubris, bluster or conceit.

The arrogance of the GOP is in full display in the House of Representatives. No less an authority than former Majority Leader Dick Armey has said that Democrats may use Republican arrogance as a campaign issue:

They (Republicans) have had control for 10 years, they've gotten arrogant, they demean the institution, they demean democracy by virtue of the heavy-handed way they run the House, minority rights are downtrodden, and it's time, Mr. and Mrs. America, to make a change... That isn't a whole lot different from the case we made in '94, after 40 years.

A former Gingrich aide has noted as follows:

I thought it would take us longer to get as arrogant as the Democrats were, but it doesn’t seem to be.

Congressional observer and quote machine Norm Ornstein says:

Democrats were insensitive to Republicans but not hostile. (Some GOP Congressmen have shown) more of a zeal to humiliate the minority and grind their faces in the dust.

The arrogance of Republicans manifests itself in a myriad of ways both big and small. Sometimes, it shows up in the form of simply being an ass.

For instance, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay recently attended a dinner with political supporters at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Washington. The restaurant is located in a federally owned building and federal regulations prohibit smoking in the restaurant.

After dinner, but before desert, DeLay wanted to smoke a cigar. When the restaurant management informed him that smoking was prohibited, Delay first tried to convince the management to allow him to break the regulation. “I am the federal government,” Delay declared. When the management would not budge, Delay “walked out” out of the party.

There are many other examples Republican arrogance in the House of Representatives. For instance, the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Bill Thomas (R-Cal), was considering a complex $50 billion pension reform measure. The majority made changes to the bill, distributed the 90 page revision around midnight and scheduled a vote for early the next morning.

Democrats complained that they had no opportunity to read and consider the changes. To gain time, the minority asked that the entire bill be read line by line.

As Juliet Eilperin and Albert B. Crenshaw of the Washington Post describe the scene:

A clerk obligingly began reading it line by line, pausing only when Thomas interrupted to announce: "In the House, the minority can delay. They cannot deny."

As the reading resumed, the Democrats departed to a library just off the main hearing room, leaving only Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) to prevent the Republicans from obtaining unanimous consent to skip the reading. After a few minutes, Thomas asked again for the unanimous consent, and instantly brought down his gavel. Stark told reporters he had objected, but Thomas had replied, "You're too late."

Even before Thomas gaveled the reading to an end, he had dispatched the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the ornate library.

Pete Stark then made some intemperate remarks but the arrogance of Chairman Thomas in requiring a vote on a measure that Democrats had no time to read or consider, failing to “hear” an objection by the lone Democrat remaining at the hearing, and sending the cops to remove Democrats from a library, is palpable.

Republicans also gave Democrats only four hours to read and consider the recent thousand page, $400 billion dollar Medicare prescription drug bill.

Republicans have shut Democrats out of the legislative process by refusing to allow Democrats to participate in conference committee meetings. No Democrats were permitted to participate in the conference on the recent energy bill and only two of seven Democrats on the Medicare conference committee were allowed to attend.

Republican arrogance is also demonstrated by a willingness to impose risks on average Americans that the GOP politicians do not wish to apply to themselves or their constituents.

For example, the GOP proposes privatizing air traffic control at 71 airports. Republican Congressman Don Young of Alaska is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman. He removed two Alaska airports from the list. What was his reason for removing the Alaska airports from privatization? The Washington Post reports:

"Of course the criticism of myself," he said, "is that I exempted the state of Alaska." But there were ample reasons for that, he said, ticking off a number of them.

"Lastly," Young said, "my hotel room is on the top floor of the Sheraton, and the airplanes take right off towards my hotel room. Every morning I look out and there's one coming right at me. It's an interesting experience and I want to make sure everything is done right in that field."

Mr. Young’s feels that his safety would be compromised by privatization of air traffic control at the airports near him. Others Americans will just have to take the risk. Merriam-Webster defines arrogance as “an impression of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or presumptuous claims.” Perhaps it would be easier to simply have pictures of Mr. DeLay, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Young.

In the Senate, the arrogance award goes to Republican Senators Gordon Smith of Oregon, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island.

Part of the GOP prescription drug plan would designate certain areas as pilot projects to test competition between Medicare and private insurance prescription drug plans. Critics of the plan suggest that seniors in the test areas will face higher premiums for coverage.

Senators Specter and Smith supported the measure but wanted assurances that cities in their states would not be chosen as the test sites. Senator Specter wrote that he “strongly protest(s) the possible use of my constituents as a testing ground for premium support.”

Senator Chaffee voted for the package but not until he received assurances from Tommy Thompson of HHS that Rhode Island would not be the site of one of the six pilot programs. The willingness to impose risks on others that they deem unacceptable to their own constituents reeks of arrogance.

The arrogance of the GOP is particularly ironic considering that gained power by criticizing Democrats as arrogant.

Donald R. Wolfensberger is a 28 year House staff veteran. He now is the director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In an essay entitled The Institutional Legacy of Speaker Newt Gingrich: The Politics of House Reform and Realities of Governing, Wolfensberger writes as follows:

The central premise of the Republicans' manifesto (the Contract with America) was that the House had become corrupted by the majority Democrats' arrogance of power and that it therefore required a major overhaul if it was to regain the people's trust and confidence. What was needed, Republicans suggested, was a greater degree of openness, accountability, responsiveness, and deliberation. What was at stake was nothing less than the institution's integrity, credibility and effectiveness.

It may not be this election, or even the next, but eventually GOP arrogance will become a political liability. GOP arrogance will galvanize Democrats, alienate independents and degrade our political institutions. The American people will then opt for a change in leadership.

A saying adapted from the Book of Proverbs holds that “pride goeth before a fall.”

Barteby notes that the saying means that “people who are overconfident or too arrogant are likely to fail.”

The GOP has demonstrated the arrogance, I anticipate a fall.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at November 25, 2003 03:14 PM | TrackBack