Congress Watch: House Dems sense favorable winds
Already energized by the president's declining poll numbers, House Democrats may have also sensed some ironic convergence in the events that brought former FEMA Director Michael Brown to Capitol Hill to testify about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina on the anniversary of the day in 1994 when House Republicans unveiled their Contract With America.
Tormented by GOP control for the past 11 years, Democrats have been looking for a way to void that contract for more than a decade, and now they think they have a chance.
"I can sense that the winds of change are about us," says Rep. Bob Menendez, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Katrina has quickly become shorthand for government ineptitude, and Brown, the early fall guy, emerged as the poster boy for a government out of touch. The disastrous aftermath of Katrina cost Brown his job and is costing the president dearly in public opinion. And Hill Republicans are rightfully nervous. So Democrats wasted no time pouncing.
"Corruption, cronyism, and incompetence," was the assessment of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi about the Bush administration and its allies in Congress. "We need a change."
Brown was on Capitol Hill yesterday making sure that everyone knew that he did indeed teach a class in state and local government at the Oklahoma City University law school in spring 1988 and that, in fact, much of the blame for the disaster that followed Katrina in Louisiana was because the governor and the mayor of the state's largest city couldn't get their act together. Brown said he made two mistakes. First, he says, he should have had more press conferences, rather than trying to respond to individual request for interviews. And second: "I regret not being able to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down and coordinate their response," Brown told the House select committee investing Hurricane Katrina, to which Pelosi refused to appoint members, saying that the fix was in.
"As we speak, the Republicans are launching their coverup of this administration's response to Katrina," she said.
Republicans see the heavy hand of midterm politics.
"While Nancy Pelosi was hunkered down this morning issuing more partisan, divisive press releases, serious-minded members of Congress were preparing to question former FEMA Director Mike Brown," said Rep. Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Katrina committee.
"Nancy Pelosi has recklessly abandoned her elected responsibility to select and recommend Democrats to this bipartisan committee," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for Speaker Denny Hastert. "We urge Democrats to ignore their leadership's cynical political strategy of standing aside and pointing fingers rather than joining us to find out the facts that could help prevent another Hurricane Katrina tragedy."
Ain't going to happen: "This is not a Congress that investigates anything," says New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, "Not Abu Ghraib, not Valerie Plame, not intelligence failures, not WMD. We would be foolish if we think for a moment that what is going on here is real."
Whatever else it is, it's real politics. And you can hear that in the appeal that Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer made to voters: "You can't change the president in 2006, but you can change the Congress."
Congress Watch analyzes the issues of the day on Capitol Hill and profiles members of the Senate and House.
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