Breaking: Congress Accomplished Something

Here's an interesting little article from the Washington Independent on how Jim Webb's GI Bill, without fanfare, came back from the political brink and will quietly become law -- despite the best efforts of the usually-decisive Blue Dog caucus. This is kind of heartening, both because the Blue Dogs suck, and because the new GI Bill is a great piece of legislation that will help innumerable military families and add a much-needed patch to our unraveling social safety net.

But it makes you think -- what else has this Congress, which in 2006 ostensibly was going right to work in rolling back conservative policies, actually accomplished? Other than that hike in the minimum wage, which came immediately after Pelosi and Reid took power, they've done nothing that I can think of. We all know that Blue Dogs, and their Republican pals, have been obstructing most major legislation (especially anything serious on Iraq), but surely after a year and a half there'd be some incremental progress we can point to, right? Is it hiding somewhere?

Truman III: Jim Webb Edition

Ah, the third coming of the Truman Committee, this time with Jim Webb at the helm. The second, of course, was the Lyndon Johnson version during the Korean War. Johnson didn't actually care about finding profiteering or inefficiency; the committee was a vehicle for him to produce headlines.

Johnson got himself on the cover of Time over the headline 'Too Much Butter, Not Enough Guns,' and the magazine referred to him as 'Watchdog in Chief.' Of course, hardly any of Johnson's allegations stood up to hard examination, and yet Time reported them uncritically, apparently failing to read more than the first couple pages of each report.

The difference between then and now is that there obviously has been waste on a humongous scale. But is this really going to turn up crimes by Bush Administration officials? Because if all we get is the CEO of Halliburton on a spit, then I'm not really all that interested.

And if the Democrats in Congress aren't willing to stand up to Bush and drag Harriet Miers in front of the Judiciary Committee, then they might as well just stop investigating and roll over until Bush has left office. The all-night session was alright, but if it isn't the start of a new 'get tough' attitude on the part of the Dems, it's just going to end up making it easier for Republicans to portray them as weak-willed.

"True Fairness In America"

Economic populism wins. About damn time.

(h/t Atrios)

Update: from the Wash Post:

Webb was nervous in front of large crowds, couldn't understand why people wanted to shake his hand and hated asking people for money. He even turned down checks from people he didn't think could afford to give up, as he called it, "their gas money."

I love this guy.