The U.S. House of Representatives voted recently to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.
What? That's illegal?
Then I'm in trouble, too, because I have not only enormous contempt but also disdain, scorn, derision and a strong feeling of disgust for Congress in general and for the House in particular.
How could it be otherwise?
Both chambers have abandoned governing in favor of partisan politics designed to appeal to their most extreme and vocal constituents. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell summed up his view of his party's role in government when he said: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president" in October 2010.
With such laser-like focus I guess McConnell forgot about the war in Afghanistan, crippling unemployment, a stagnant economy, the erosion of the middle class and everything else outside the Washington Beltway.
Alas, little has changed since McConnell dumbed down Congress' constitutional duties. Ideas today are still advanced and positions are taken on the basis of how well they will confound the other party, rather than on merit, and a closed mind is considered a virtue.
I keep hoping for rationality to blossom, but the latest dispatches from the political front are not encouraging, as evidenced by reaction to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling that the administration's plan to overhaul health care is, indeed, constitutional. With the big question decided, the opposing forces should be hard at work narrowing their differences and planning the details of how the law will be implemented, to the benefit of millions of uninsured Americans.
But are they? No.
Opponents of the measure refuse to gracefully acknowledge the decision and are now laying plans to kill or gut the legislation. They further disgraced themselves on Wednesday, when all House Republicans — and five Democrats — voted to repeal the law. This truly useless and pitiful gesture, doomed to certain failure when it reaches the Senate, is the thirty-third time the House has passed such a bill. This is especially puzzling, because recent polls have shown that members of both political parties are in favor, at least in principle, of many of the provisions contained in the law.
But knee-jerk reactions have replaced informed and thoughtful consideration in the gladiatorial arena that Congress has become.
The system of health care in the United States is a source of embarrassment here and amazement in the rest of the civilized world, because of its astronomical expense and its exclusionary nature.
The Affordable Care Act is an attempt to remedy those flaws and to widen the safety net for low-income Americans. Congress — an institution loathed by an overwhelming majority of the country — has a chance to partially redeem itself by doing something noble that will improve the quality of life for millions of citizens.
But the calcified leaders in each house show no signs of doing the right thing. They're still hard at work digging ideological trenches and stringing rhetorical barbed wire around their defend-to-the-death positions even though the war has ended. Instead of working for the common good and moving forward they're more interested in undoing what has already been done.
It doesn't have to be this way. We deserve better. But grasping for greatness is far beyond the reach of most of our small-minded representatives. A great country such as ours should have great leadership in Congress. At present, we do not.
Contempt of Congress? I don't know about Eric Holder, but I'm guilty as hell.
Bill Federman is a Times Union editor. His email address is bfederman@timesunion.com.