Tierney Bemoans GOP Majority in Congress
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4-Despite Republican gains in both the House and the Senate, Congressman John Tierney, D-Salem, expressed confidence that locally much would remain the same.
Nationally, however, the GOP’s “radical right agenda,” he said, would hamper any legislative success. The new Congress that convenes in January will have 232 Republicans and 202 Democrats, with one independent who generally votes with the Democrats. In the Senate, Democrats lost four seats, leaving the chamber with 44 Democrats, 55 Republicans and one Democratic-leaning independent.
“On local issues, there shouldn’t be much difference at all,” Tierney said on Thursday about the enlarged Republican majority in Congress. “We’ve been very successful” in providing for the Sixth District, said the Salem Democrat, who was re-elected Tuesday night by 70 percent of his district’s voters.
Tierney cited success in securing funds for many areas in the Sixth District, including more than a million dollars a year for the Essex National Heritage Area, technology funding for local colleges and financial support for the highways and Coast Guard in the district.
Nationally, however, Tierney expressed concern over the GOP majority in both the Senate and the House. Republicans in the House, Tierney said, will continue to set the radical right agenda, as it has since it won control in 1994. Likewise, Democrats will continue to play spoilers until they regain a majority.
“If past experience or past behavior indicates future action, [the Republicans] are going to want to behave in a bipartisan manner,” said Roger Robins, professor of political science at Marymount College in Palos Verdes, Calif. “Already they’re turning their attention to the next set of agenda, in particular domestic agenda.”
Robins, an independent who voted for Kerry and is “heartbroken” he lost, warned: “If you’re in the Northeast or out West, expect a beating. I think they sense that they’ve got us on the run. It’s not going to be easy. We shouldn’t try to imagine that it will be.”
Tierney said that “this House doesn’t value debate or compromise.” The current GOP leadership, he said, runs the House through a combination of bad legislation, stalled legislation and inaction.
“You’re going to have bad legislation, like the prescription drug bill,” he said, where the Republican leadership “twists the arms” of rank-and-file Republicans to vote along party lines.
Stalled legislation comes about, he said, “because the House is so radically right that the Senate doesn’t even accept it.” The Senate needs at least 60 votes to push through legislation without risk of Democratic filibusters. The House does not have an equivalent method to impede legislation. It needs only a simple majority to pass a bill.
Other bills that have failed in their purpose need to be reworked, Tierney said. The No Child Left Behind law, co-sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, “needs to be revisited,” but nothing has been done to improve the statute, which demands higher education standards for students but lacks enough federal funds to work properly. Democratic members of Congress not only face a stronger GOP majority, but also are challenged by a greater number of conservative Republicans from the South and other Republican-leaning states, like Texas, where House Majority Leader Tom DeLay led a successful move to redistrict five Democratic-leaning districts into Republican ones..
Tierney said “it would be consistent” for the Republican House members to attempt to push through a radical right agenda. Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said in a press release, “I am looking forward to working with President Bush and with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [R-Tenn], to enact our common-sense agenda.”
Robert Speel, an associate professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University at Erie, suggested that “Republican control of the entire federal government will mean that the political beliefs and values of Northeasterners, particularly liberals, are not going to have much influence in Washington, at least for the next two years.”
“In the past, New England and its political allies have had more people and therefore been able to outvote the South,” Speel said. “Unfortunately for New Englanders, the reverse is now true. Northern and West Coast Democrats have to somehow figure out a way to get voters who vote based on traditional cultural values to support a Democrat who will probably hold more liberal views on cultural issues.”
As far as criticism about the Democratic Party’s failure to connect with cultural or religious values, Tierney said, “We’ve made a good connection with people who vote for us.” The people of Massachusetts and the people in the Sixth District, he said, “know that we have strong values.”
In other parts of the country, however, Tierney said he believes the personal connection between Democratic politicians and their constituents is going to become more of an issue. He also said he believes in a “strong need of separation of church and state,” adding that “the way things seem to be going it looks like it’s going to be difficult at times.”
Tierney said the increased Senate Republican majority means it is “more possible” that President Bush could appoint a conservative justice to the Supreme Court. And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would be far less dependent on the votes of moderate Republicans from the Northeast to pass legislation, he added..
“Whether or not the Senate can do anything remains to be seen,” he said.
During President Bush’s first term, Democratic senators filibustered judicial nominations. “This is when Ted Kennedy and John Kerry’s stature comes into play,” Tierney said about future nominations.
“The only national political arena in which northern liberals may be able to have some political input is the U.S. Senate,” Penn State’s Speel said. “My assumption is that Ted Kennedy and perhaps John Kerry will lead filibusters against some of President Bush’s judicial appointments and against any attempts to privatize Social Security.”
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