American voters, this current failed Congress wants your votes - opinion

The most dysfunctional, unproductive US Congress in over 160 years just went home to ask constituents to reward and rehire them for a job they’ve consistently botched and don’t deserve.

Before rushing off to National Airport they once again kicked the budget can down the road by passing a short-term Continuing Resolution to fund the government briefly into the fiscal year that begins October 1. They ignored Donald Trump’s call for a shutdown because several Republicans in swing districts convinced their leadership that another GOP-led shutdown could shut down their careers.

Until this month, the House had been in session for votes only 19 days since late June, noted the Punchbowl newsletter. 

They won’t return until after the election with a raft of lame ducks for another round of 11th-hour brinkmanship. It’ll be another Christmas tree bill laden with pet spending bills and policy ornaments hung with little care by any lawmaker with enough clout.

There are many patriots and serious legislators in this Congress, but they’re not running the show. That is in the hands of a lunatic fringe on the Right that has Speaker Mike Johnson and the leadership cowering to keep their jobs and the favor of the disgraced former president.

(It’s a bit like Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is nominally in charge but the messianic extremists in his coalition are the ones calling the shots.)

The MAGA House shuns bipartisan lawmaking in favor of meaningless partisan messaging bills laden with attacks on racial diversity, immigrants, reproductive rights, gun control, civil servants, church-state separation, LGBTQ rights, and even the FBI and the IRS.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) described this Congress as “political theater.” His fellow Kentucky Republican, Rep. James Comer, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, has played a leading role in what is more farce than drama. He hands out subpoenas like candy on Halloween.

He and Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wasted 18 months trying to impeach President Joe Biden but were made fools of by their key witnesses, who turned out to be linked to Russian and Chinese intelligence. When Biden dropped his reelection bid, they pivoted to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. They want to know about Walz’s links to China, and why he visited on his honeymoon and returned later to teach school. 

Comer’s latest target is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his visit to a Pennsylvania factory last week to thank workers producing artillery shells for the war against Russia. Johnson called the visit partisan and is demanding Zelensky fire his ambassador to Washington for arranging it. 

Mark Twain once said, “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” 

THAT CRIMINALITY is bipartisan, belying Trump’s false charges that Biden has weaponized the Justice Department to go after his foes. 

A handful of the most crooked congress members

The most crooked member of the 118th Congress title goes to Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez (New Jersey), the Foreign Relations Committee chairman convicted of 16 counts of selling out to Egypt and others for some gold bars, wads of cash, and assorted gifts.

George Santos, the former Brazilian drag queen who lied his way to a New York congressional seat, appears headed from the People’s House to the Big House as he awaits sentencing on fraud and other charges.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) is running for reelection while under indictment for money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery.

Rep. Jamal Bowman (D-New York) was arrested for pulling a false fire alarm in the House office building. 

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) insists there was no violation of ethics rules when he put his mistress and his fiancé’s daughter on his House payroll. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) said he will no longer cooperate with the Ethics Committee’s investigation into allegations he had sex with women under 18. 

For better or worse, there are no laws against bigotry and stupidity.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) called Haitian migrants “thugs” and told them to get “their asses out of our country.” Johnson defended his fellow Louisianan, saying he “prayed on it” and deleted his racist outburst from the Congressional Record. No apology, no regrets, just deleted – and later said he stood by his statement.

Sen. John Kennedy, another Louisiana Republican, wrongly accused an Arab-American witness of supporting the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. “You support Hamas, do you not?” he repeatedly badgered her at a hearing on hate crimes, saying she should “hide your head in a bag.” Leaders of Muslim and Jewish organizations came to her defense.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) accused Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of trying “to get the white extremists, the white nationalists” out of the military. He defined white nationalist as “a Trump Republican.”

House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for not doing enough to halt illegal immigration despite their failure to identify any high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democratic-led Senate dismissed the charges against Mayorkas, a Jewish immigrant whose mother fled the Holocaust.

The House censured attorney-general Merrick Garland for refusing to turn over audio tapes of Biden’s interview with the special counsel. They had the transcript but wanted the audio, presumably for gotcha sound bites in Trump’s campaign.

THIS WAS the year Republicans discovered antisemitism could be a lucrative issue.

In the wake of Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and antisemitic demonstrations sprung up on many campuses. Republicans seized the opportunity to portray all Democrats as antisemites and anti-Israel.

Leaping to the Jews’ defense was an unlikely Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, number three in the House GOP leadership. “Stefanik has, for years now, consistently pushed and defended antisemitic rhetoric,” reports the Slate news site, “boosting antisemitic conspiracy theories and smears” such as the “replacement” theory that says the white race is under threat of extinction at the hands of Jews and other minorities.

Her high-drama assault on university presidents in hearings on campus antisemitism and her demands for their resignations was classic chutzpah, and profitable. Politico reports she raised more than $7 million, mostly from prominent Jewish Republicans. She even accused Sen. Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jew ever in the American government, of not “supporting” Israel or “the rights of Jewish people.”

This deeply polarized Congress has failed because it has treated bipartisanship like a disease. There will be a new president and new Congress next year, and unless they too want to fail, they must learn that lesson.

Too many are running right now for the national legislature not to legislate but to disrupt and impose their ideology on everyone else. The times are too perilous for demagoguery and megalomaniacal autocrats. 

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.