The Wednesday news photo included jubilant Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as they raised their hands in victory after Tuesday's elections. They were standing behind a podium fronted by a sign that read "Change for America."
Even though they and their ticket-leaders, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, had just cause to rejoice, they should not allow themselves to soak up the triumph too long. What their appearances, and those of countless other Democratic leaders, created was the reminder that they must answer that age-old question about voting people into office: They won; now can they govern?
The records of Pelosi, Reid and Hoyer over the past two years are not impressive. In fact, even a lot of Democrats are embarrassed at how many opportunities were missed as the White House continued to decline in positive impact.
The Democrats registered major gains two years ago as Republican influence and leadership waned and there were countless predictions of near-miracles as Pelosi took over the House speaker's job. Optimists contended that these people and their backers were on the verge of outstanding gains on behalf of the people they were voted into office to serve.
But what really did they get done? Democrats have controlled both the House and Senate in that period, and even though their relationship with the Republican White House was generally contentious at best, what of a major nature did they accomplish?
The economy has continued to crumble as the Democratic Congress has time and again missed chances to act and react to obvious threats, fraud and incompetence in the financial sector. True, the George W. Bush presidency has not done much better, and there are mixed results in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war against terrorism.
But it was the Democrats after gaining workable majorities in the House and Senate who fell so pathetically short of expectations. Polls show that public regard for the Congress is lower even than its perception of George W. Bush. That is not something Pelosi, Reid and such should be boastful about.
Finally, we got to Election Day and Democrats Obama and Biden prevailed with a whopping victory. They and fellow Democrats had good reason to celebrate, as the congressional group was doing in the news photo.
But let's hope that sign in front of them, "Change for America," is something that will sober them up, fast, and get them on track to doing the many vital jobs they were chosen for. There is evidence that President-elect Obama is fully aware that he will have to hit the ground running and dares not waste any time at tackling the countless problems of the nation, at home and abroad.
We can only hope the Democratic Congress is infected with the same degree of fervor as that of its party leader, and after two years of disappointing performance will show that they not only can win but govern effectively. Obama, Biden and all the rest now must prove they can perform notably in office.
Rejoice a while, people, but then it's work-time and the sooner the job at hand is tackled, the better off all of us will be.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
WTF are you writing about tony?
tangential_reasoners_anonymous (anonymous) says…
Regarding Tony's wee-hour post, above... a case of sleep typing?( I've had feverish, fitful dreams that were more accessible. )
liggyon (David Lignell) says…
Who was President these last 8 years? I don't recall his name to be Pelosi, Reid or Hoyer. And did they have veto power? Perhaps the author mired the article's reasoning in tonythetigerian logic. (Wadda think, tange?) I have no qualms about holding public officials accountable. Perhaps if we had done that these past two terms we might have impeached W and averted the economic crisis sooner.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
"The economy has continued to crumble as the Democratic Congress has time and again missed chances to act and react to obvious threats, fraud and incompetence in the financial sector."While the Democrats' performance in Congress the last two years has been disappointing, that doesn't change the fact that the responsibility for the mess(es) we now have lie squarely with Republicans, not their junior partners."True, the George W. Bush presidency has not done much better, and there are mixed results in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war against terrorism."Much better? Jeez, this will go down as the most incompetent and corrupt administration in modern history. There is no "better" about their performance, and the results in Iraq and Afghanistan are not mixed-- they are disasters to which there are no good solutions.
awdvkd (anonymous) says…
If Obama tells Pelosi to shut up, he may stand a chance to unite this country. Obama is the president (I did not vote for him) we must quit with the blame game. Start handling the problems that exist now and move forward.
J10 (anonymous) says…
David Lignell-Oh give me a break!!! it was the republicans who in '05 tried to put more regulation on housing & loan, but they were blocked by the dems and left wing "republicans" i.e. moderates. Obama is not going to fix the problems; the first person Obama picked for his administration was Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel was director of Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant that started the collapse of Wall Street and the American economy. Obama accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Fannie & Freddie. And fellow democrat Barney Frank said this summer that Fannie/Freddie was a good investment.Now I am not saying republicans have done any better, some "moderates" went along spending like crazy then called themselves "compassionate conservatives". Or better named spread the wealth around liberal republicans. So both parties are at fault. Democrats admit to wanting to increase spending, Moderates usually don't. All said, we need real conservatives in office not liars.
ridinthefence (anonymous) says…
Of course there is work to be done! 8 years of Dubya about took us down. Work to be done, oh ya!
overthemoon (anonymous) says…
J10:Rahm Emmanuel was not the director Freddie Mac, he served on the board. This sort of misunderstanding and misinformation has been rampant among those who miss no chance to try to catch an Obama slip up. Get the facts straight, then we can have an intelligent debate.
femail (Linda Hanney) says…
I think Obama appointed a couple old school politicians to watch his back and keep the rowdy democratic congress in line. Hopefully, he'll ease back toward the middle and get everyone to work together, "the sooner the better."