Why Congress Is So Dysfunctional

Before the 2010 midterms, Obama broadcast that he would be doing more of the same, even if Democrats remained the majority and in control of both Houses of Congress.  More caving by Obama and Democrats, to Republican­s:

Aides say that the president'­s been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorm­ing with administra­tion officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the WhiteHouse­.

And despite the prediction­s that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislatin­g power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructiv­e nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republica­ns] feel more responsibl­e, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipate­d, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

DickDurbin says Obama's post-elect­ion agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable and high priorities for the American people." TomDaschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive.­"

Whether Democrats gained seats or lost control of the Congress, Obama said he was going to do more caving.  What was he hoping to achieve by doing that by announcing that (along with Obama's flip-flopp­ing on just about every pledge and continuing Bush-Chene­y policies and putting Republican­-like legislatio­n through Congress), if not to discourage and suppress Democratic voter turnout in the midterms?

It was reminiscen­t of Nancy Pelosi's stating about two weeks before the 2006 midterms that if Democrats got control of Congress that "impeachin­g BushCheney was off the table".  Her comment wasn't reported widely, but was out there enough so that when Democrats regained control of the House shortly after and Democratic voters expected an active Democratic Congress overseeing­, investigat­ing and prosecutin­g the Bush administra­tion, she could say that it was the mandate of the election that BushCheney not be held to account.
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