Conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to stay in Congress is to gauge where one's constituents stand and follow (i.e. Hillary Clinton).  The inside-the-beltway pundits and the corporate media, who continue to equate supporting the troops to supporting the war, support this view.  Poll after poll shows that they are light years behind the general public in their opinion.  Unfortunately, many well-intentioned and some not so well-intentioned members of Congress continue to follow this path to re-election.  While they rationalize their capitulation to Bush by stating that they will not leave the soldiers in Iraq without the funding they need, isn't that what's already happening?  It's hard to imagine how things could be worse than indefinitely exposing our soldiers to IED's in a place where we have no hope of winning.

The flaw in this reasoning is simply that members of Congress legislate as if their job hangs on every vote.  This mind-set results in excessive caution: not a desirable trait in a leader.  Select members of Congress have proven that the converse is actually true.  Paul Wellstone, who voted against the Iraq war, actually got a bump in the polls in spite of the fact that the majority of his constituents apparently were still buying the Bush bull shit at the time.  Jack Murtha won re-election by a landslide in a conservative district after boldly calling for deployment when conventional wisdom espoused that this stance would be political suicide (unfortunately he recently regressed).  Russ Feingold will probably be a Senator for as long as he desires, in spite of his repeatedly "suicidal" stances on the issues.  On the other hand, those who legislate by following limit their effectiveness by taking the cautious approach and preserving the status quo.  The danger in taking the cautious "follower" approach is magnified by a largely uninformed electorate.  In an era where many Americans are unaware whether their Senators or Representatives are in state or federal government, the path to re-election is to take a leadership role and stand apart from the unnamed masses in Congress.

In his 2006 Senate campaign, Bob Casey fittingly stated many times that "If George Bush and Rick Santorum always agree, one of them is not needed."  I would expand that view to "If the Member of Congress and his/her constituents always agree, one of them is not necessary."  If our members of Congress choose not to lead, maybe we should legislate by public referendum.  While that would be in incredibly ineffective way to run a government, it may be better than government by gauging public opinion (erroneously at times) and reactive legislation.

In 2006, I supported Jason Altmire and Bob Casey, both financially and actively, and will continue to support both in spite of the fact that they do not vote in the manner that I would prefer on all issues.  Unfortunately, both are currently more associated with their capitulation vote than their stances on minimum wage, employee free choice, reimportation of drugs, and a multitude of other issues in which they are solidly in synch with working families.  I sincerely hope that others will give them credit for these stances when it comes time for their re-election, because I strongly believe that both have been effective overall, and a vast improvement over fascists Santorum and Hart.  Unfortunately, their capitulation on one issue opens the door for a corporate tool (i.e. Lynn Swan).

Maybe Congress can learn from, of all people, George Bush.  Just consider what this buffoon has accomplished just by having balls (and no brain).  For the first five years of his term, he maintained the support of almost 50% of the country, in spite of the fact that virtually every one of his policies was in direct opposition to the public interest (this in addition to the fact that if you give a republican a tax cut, you could probably get away with molesting his 12 year old daughter).  He maintained this support while raping working America, the environment, and civil rights, and destroying all international respect for the leader of the free world, the USA.  Just think what a leader with a brain AND balls could accomplish.

I hope some members of Congress read this post or others like it before their next chance at getting it right in September.  God knows they won't read anything like this in the mainstream media.

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