Election Coverage: Preview

The government is boring. From agricultural marketing services appropriation spending to endlessly debating nickel vs. aluminum tariffs negotiations, the work and function of the federal government is a complex web mostly impacting the fine minutiae of the world around us. And it is the proud duty of our highly valued elected politicians to wade through the muck and the mire of endless paperwork and opinions, to resolve and agree upon the mundane details of our lives. Sure, from the outside, it seems that every day congressmen ponder large decisions which will shape not only our future, but form our children's children world, but a quick look at this past week in the senate shows a different picture. Here's a few snapshots what was voted on this past Friday:

Action: To amend the National Trails System Act to designate the New England National Scenic Trail, and for other purposes.Latest Major Action: 1/31/2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Action: A resolution expressing the strong support of the Senate for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to enter into a Membership Action Plan with Georgia and Ukraine.Latest Major Action: 1/31/2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Action: A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study of feasibility relating to the construction and operation of pipelines and carbon dioxide sequestration facilities, and for other purposes.Latest Major Action: 1/31/2008 Senate committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearings held.

Sure, the big name candidates take the floor and inspire us with sweeping generalizations of what our country is, and how he (and in one instance, she) are the only one knowledgeable, principled, and skilled enough to take us into a bright and glorious future. Unfortunately, the president's time which is not swallowed up by personally congratulating the WNBA championship team or meeting awkwardly with foreign leaders, will be spent weighing in on less-than-profound topics of which he has no knowledge on. Most of the major candidates go on about Iraq War this, and economy stimulus that, but any big new initiative will hit a wall, until it's dismantled, rebuilt, and amended into oblivion with pork barrel spending courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration and the Alliance for protecting our historic covered bridges. Every now and then someone goes on how we need a "strong leader", to "strongly lead" our country with demonstrations of "strong leadership." But, has anyone actually taken the time to find out exactly what the president does? I really don't mean to belittle the office of presidency, or the power it can exert, but I believe it's a different kind of power than we normally think of. Personally, I feel the most over-arching responsibility of the presidency is bringing in political appointees, and thus kind of influencing the general conscious and philosophy of Washington. I mean, George Washington wasn't a particularly brilliant man, he did not pose some kind of unique wisdom that resulted in the capital and countless middle schools be named after. What he did in that first presidential cabinet was assemble the greatest political minds at the time and put them around the table. I mean, there were fierce rivals in the group, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson. This even goes double for Lincoln. Through the early years of the civil war the public kind of viewed him as a bumbler at best and dangerously incompetent at worst. However, he went out of his way to surround himself with his political rivals. And personally, this is what I've viewed the Bush administration as severely lacking. When he came into power he searched the halls of neo-con power to bring together a "greatest hits" cabinet of the nixon / reagan years. His biggest failure came in Iraq, where the administration's philosophy for the rebuilding effort was to have every worker over there having the exact political ideals as the president. They went so far as scouring conservative think tanks for interns with no foreign diplomacy experience, to replace seasoned politicians already on the ground over there.

Now, government may be boring, but politics is interesting. Take, for instance, Arlin Specter's latest threats against Goodell and the NFL. On the surface level, it seems like Specter's a whack job with a personal vendeda. But the NFL owes a magnificent debt to the federal government, as anti-trust exemption allows the NFL to do a lot of funny enforcing of broadcasting rights. And, it's latest power ploy with DirectTV and the NFL network has left a sour taste in the mouths of alot of powerful cable companies. Specter's been known to fight here and there for the cable companies (for reasons you can make up on your own), so it's no suprise he's twisting the knife on the spygate story to ah, you know, tee off a few people. So, all that to say, there's the story, then there's the story, then there's the story.