100 hours of Pelosi

It's no more than we should expect, but it's still entertaining.

It should be no surprise that new Speaker Pelosi announced that there would be a new bipartisan tenor to the House under her leadership. After all, it's what her party complained about all through their last 12 years in the minority, and especially the last 6 years with 2 branches of the federal goverment in Republican hands.

It should also not be surprising that she has unveiled a plan for the "first 100 hours" of the 110th congress (that's about 2 weeks, I think) that pretty much shuts the Republican minority out and pushes through several key pieces of Democrat-backed legislation that languished under Republican control.

And of course, we should not be surprised that the Republicans in congress are complaining about Pelosi's decision to rush legislation that has been crafted by Democrats to votes without allowing them sufficient time to amend or debate.

Come on people, it's politics.

Of course Pelosi is going to come in promising to change everything that her opponents had been doing wrong, and to treat them better than her party had been treated while in the minority.

And of course as soon as she has the authority to actually make decisions, she's going to succumb to the temptation to push through as much broadly supported, non-controversial (or at least not-very-controversial) legislation as she can, especially when it's stuff that Democrats across the country were promising as part of taking control of Congress and it presents the appearance that things are really changing.

And of course she promises to let the Republicans play as soon as this really important stuff is settled. 100 hours, that's it, honest.

And of course the Republicans pull out the exact same complaints and arguments that the Democrats had been leveling at them for the last 6 (or, depending on how you look at it, 12) years that they're being sidelined and that legislation important to them is getting rushed through or put into drawers in committee meeting rooms. Because this is politics and everything has a half-life no longer than the daily news cycle, they are able to make these arguments without the slightest acknowledgement of any irony or awkwardness, brashly declaring "You're not playing fair!" without even a blush acknowledging the unsaid follow-up "You're doing it the same way we did for years!" or even a sheepish "I guess after the way we led, we should have expected this."

The memory of the political news cycle is notoriously short, and that's working out great for all parties involved. Pelosi can push forward in a sharply partisan fashion while promising that it's just for 100 hours, knowing full well that her prior promises of bipartisan partnership are no longer worth reporting on, and that 125 legislative hours from now nobody will bother reporting on whether or not she kept a promise she made two weeks previously. Promises are political fool's gold. Everyone reports on the promises and they get touted as accomplishments, but follow-up is poor and not "exciting" news. The politicians know it and they play it for all it's worth.

The same can be said for the Republicans in congress who feel complete freedom to blast Pelosi with the same scornful words that were justly leveled at them in years past, without shame or fear of being called "flip-floppers" (unless they run for President, I guess). The press corps is like an institutionalized version of Tom Hanks' character "Mr. Short Term Memory" from Saturday Night Live. If it happened more than a couple of days ago, it's not news. Their job is to report on what's happening now, not remind us of what happened before. The lack of accountability gives politicians license to make grandiose promises and count on the news reporting only on the promises and not coming back to follow-up.

So take the promises with a grain of salt. Check on the Congress in 200 hours or so for signs of bipartisanship in the agenda. Until then, it's politics as usual.

- "I want answers now, or I want them eventually!"