Warning: If you plan to visit the nation's capital in the next few weeks, beware of excessive hot air, high winds, dust storms and general malaise. To avoid contact, citizens are asked to avoid both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, specifically the White House, the Capitol and the assorted congressional office buildings that frame an unfortified border around the halls of government.
In previous years when Congress would go off on some frivolous path, it was referred to as "silly season." The problem now is finding any humor in the grinding sound emanating from Washington - the final strains of the wheels of government coming to a halt.
The term "gridlock" is so yesterday when referring to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Today it's total lockdown - a take-no-prisoners attitude.
The situation did not occur overnight or over the past year. It has been building for years, and Republicans and Democrats share plenty of the blame.
There is a saying about power corrupting. In the case of Congress and Washington in general, it is the abuse of power combined with a loss of memory when the levers of government shift from one partisan political set of hands to the other.
Unfortunately the media do little to set the record straight or to hold the politicians accountable for their words, deeds and actions. It is only ironic that during the week when the media push out a stream of open-government or sunshine reports, the Fourth Estate overlooks a glaring example: how Congress conducts its business.
One consequence of the reductions in staff for many news organizations is the loss of institutional memory - or those journalists with enough experience to have witnessed the congressional sleight of hand regardless of party. Bloggers and other appendages of the "new media" world have been unable to make up the gap because many fed off those who are no more.
The result is rhetoric that spews from one side of the political aisle or the other and creates the illusion that tactics being used are without precedent and are abusive of the rights of the minority. What is missing from these one-sided platitudes is that the tactics are not new; how they are being employed is the new news.
For the next five minutes, let's call a truce, enter the DMZ
(demilitarized zone), and share a few facts.
* Fact one: The Democrats did not create the reconciliation process. The legislative maneuver to avoid a Senate filibuster was hatched in the first months of the Reagan administration. The new GOP Senate majority, working with Reagan aides, created a scheme to pass the initial budget and tax cuts proposed by the president. The plan stemmed from Watergate reforms of the 1970s.
* Fact two: When reconciliation was used in 1981, Democrats offered amendments (Republicans will be able to do so when health care is attached to a budget reconciliation) and the 51 Republican senators voted as a bloc 48 times.
* Fact three: "Deem and passage" has been used over time by Republican and Democratic majorities to slide legislation through the Congress. According to Norman Ornstein with the American Enterprise Institute, the Republican majority used the procedure 36 times between 2005 and 2006. He cited a $40 billion deficit reduction package pushed by the Bush administration that had a controversial immigration provision attached. To avoid a recorded vote on the immigration measure, "deem and passage" was the parliamentary rule of choice.
* Fact four: Again citing Mr. Ornstein, Democrats, including current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, challenged the "deem and passage" approach as unlawful. The courts held otherwise.
* Fact five: Democrats reportedly have used the tactic 49 times from 2007 to 2008.
The politics should not cloud the facts.
The health care issue should be about how much it costs, who is covered, whether costs will drop, whether taxes will increase and whether health care will improve. Those are legitimate points and areas of political disagreement.
Whether a parliamentary sleight of hand was employed by the Democrats instead of the Republicans is inside baseball and a distraction.
When a recent national poll states that 75 percent of those surveyed would turn out their member of Congress, the focus should be on outcomes and not on the arcane rules of the congressional game.
To reach Tom Griscom, call 423-757-6472 or e-mail tgriscom@timesfreepress.com.