Sonny Bono Quotes

In 1871 the congressman refused to serve as chairman of a committee to investigate the Ku Klux Klan. Such pandering to the South was common for politicians who had national aspirtation. If the politican served on such a committee, he would have to aknowledge the existance of the murders, torture, and other criminal activity of an organzation that was very popular in the South. Or he would have to cover up the KKK crimes and lose the support of Northerners. So refusing to serve on the committee was the prudent solution.

This is an important political quotation because it illustrates one of the major reasons that Congress was so gridlocked at the time and passed hardly any legislation at all. Farenthold was a relatively new Congressman supported by the Tea Party extreme conservatives. He had no Congressional legislative experience and viewed the House / Senate Conference Committee process more like a Middle East rug bazaar than a serious democratic process of constructive legislation. The position that he wants to take to the Conference Committee which is “livable” to him is not only unlivable to the majority of the Senate, but unlivable for a large part of his own House of Representatives, His position is so extreme that most Senators and many House members on the Conference Committee do not even bother to attempt to negotiate from there. Experienced Congressional legislators realize that negotiation can only take place between realistic options. Otherwise no legislation gets passed which was at that time, OK with most of the Tea Party supporters.

See Henry Clay for an earlier expression of this point.

In the summer of 1989 the House was anxious to adjourn for the summer recess but the savings and loan bailout legislation was stalled. The leaders of both parties forged a compromise which was not enthusiastically received by their members. A Democratic leader advised:

The House, under the control of the majority leadership, does not have to be very efficient or reasonable with respect to its own procedures. Leaderships of both parties care little of their caucus members read the legislation or not so long as they vote the party line as instructed by the leadership.

Actually, the insistence on 60 days had nothing to do with having time of members of Congress to study the treaty and make up their minds. It was intended by the opponents of the treaty to give them time to whip up public opinion so such a degree that it might derail the treaty. But if they said that, and the President said, "No", they would lose. But couched this way, if the President refused, they could say that the President and supporters of the treaty were afraid that the public and the press as well as they would have the time to see the weaknesses and just wanted to "ram" the treaty through. So they either get the time or they create suspicion of the treaty in many minds. Unfortunately, what is good politics is often hypocritical and frequently intellectually dishonest.

Referring to the 98% reelection rate of congressional incumbents:

Referring to the narrowly drawn censure resolution of Joseph R. McCarthy that passed the Senate:

It was an election year.