浪花直播

It is not unusual for sitting members of Congress to twitch and moan that the other party is destroying the institution. The majority party lambastes the minority for obstructing the important business of the country and the minority counter-bastes the majority for excluding it from making those important decisions.

What is unusual is for a sitting member to admit that both parties are to blame for the sorry state of affairs in Congress, let alone suggest ways to correct it. The exceptions, of course, are those members who vent their pent-up frustrations with Congress and both parties upon announcing their retirements. Never mind they did little to correct matters when they could.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the exception to that exception: He is not retiring and has a primary challenge from a tea-party-backed candidate this fall. And yet, in a floor speech on Jan. 8, McConnell confessed that both parties are at fault for the current state of dysfunction in Congress.

Granted, he does not abandon his partisan lens in portraying the process used for passing Obamacare or Majority Leader Harry Reid鈥檚 unilateral change in filibuster rules last November. But he acknowledges that both sides use 鈥渢heatrics and messaging wars that go on here day after day鈥� and says that 鈥渟how votes鈥� have become 鈥渆ntirely too routine and it diminishes the Senate.鈥� Over the past several years, he observes, 鈥渢he Senate seems more like a campaign studio than a serious legislative body.鈥�

Rather than replay the blame game, McConnell suggests returning to what the Senate does best and that is resolve legitimate differences between the parties through vigorous debate in which all 50 states are represented 鈥渁nd every single senator 鈥� has a say in the laws we pass here.鈥�

He reminds his colleagues that the great laws of the past were not made by 鈥渢hrowing these bills together in a backroom and dropping them on the floor with a stopwatch running.鈥� Instead they were made through 鈥渁 laborious process of legislating, persuasion, and coalition building鈥� that 鈥渢ook time and patience and hard work.鈥� The Senate, he says, has 鈥渓ost our sense for the value of that.鈥�

That brings him to his three main recommendations: restoring the committee process, allowing senators to speak through an open amendment process, and putting in 鈥渁 decent week鈥檚 work鈥� right up to the end to get things done 鈥� 鈥渦sing the clock to force consensus.鈥� He vows to return to all three practices if Republicans regain majority control next year.

A robust committee system has been lost, he says, even though it provides the best means of developing national policy, acting as a counterweight to the executive and serving as a school for bipartisanship. Likewise, an open floor amendment process that guarantees all senators and their constituents 鈥渁 greater voice鈥� is often denied today.

Partisanship is not the problem, says McConnell. 鈥淭he real problem has been a growing lack of confidence in the Senate鈥檚 ability to mediate the tensions and disputes we have always had around here.鈥� There are many reasons for that, he says, but 鈥渦ltimately both parties have to assume some of the blame.鈥� It will take both parties, working together, to restore the institution. He reminds his colleagues that 鈥渋t is during periods of its greatest polarization that the value of the Senate is most clearly seen.鈥�

McConnell concludes his remarks by admitting that getting back to normal won鈥檛 happen overnight. 鈥淭his is a behavioral problem,鈥� he says, and 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 require a rules change. We just need to act differently with each other, respect the committee process, have an open amendment process, and work a little harder.鈥�

McConnell鈥檚 outrage is still evident over the majority leader鈥檚 use of the 鈥渘uclear option鈥� last November to impose a new filibuster precedent. It is worth noting, however, that so far Republicans have not 鈥渂lown up the place鈥� in retaliation, as some Democrats vowed they would do nine years ago if the GOP majority had pulled the nuclear trigger. The Republicans鈥� response so far has been muted and measured while holding out an olive branch for greater floor amendment fairness.

McConnell鈥檚 Jan. 8 remarks are worth all senators鈥� reading because they offer a way to de-escalate the hyperpartisan warfare currently wracking Congress. If both parties step back from the jagged red line dividing them, they will be better positioned to shake hands instead of butt heads.