A Lying Senator
There is a liar in the ranks of Republican Senators as discovered this week. There is no doubt a Republican Senator anonymously halted legislation on the floor of the Senate as Sen. Lamar Alexander's (R) objection attests. But, now, every Republican Senator has denied being the anonymous Bill stopper. That makes one of them a liar.
The Bill called for legislation that would require senators to file their campaign finance forms electronically? It's a good bill, because it would allow far more rapid disclosure by politicians to the public as to whom they are getting their 'bribes' from. But in a bizarre and alien procedure to democracy, our illustrious Senate has a rule which allows an anonymous Senator to raise an objection to a Bill through the voice of another Senator, in this case Lamar Alexander.
So, who is this Senator hiding from the public's view? Certainly not a Democrat. 
Could this Senator be one and the same who objects to the Bill but, does not want the public to know it was he? How can such action not be viewed as corruption in our government?
Our representatives should be acting on the people's behalf, and if they are, they have nothing to hide. When our politicians try to act in a hidden fashion, or anonymously, in their roles as our representatives, it is a pretty safe speculation that their actions are not on behalf of their constituents or the
nation.
This is the kind of corruption that comes from incumbents in office too long. The power they come to regard as their "Precious" in the word of Gollum in the Tolkien Trilogy, eventually demands that their sense of duty and obligation to the people yield to their "Precious-s-s-s" hold on power. Not every politician will succumb to the pressures to retain power at any cost, but, enough do that it is a wise general rule for voters to be skeptical of voting for an incumbent more than two or three times, unless they have displayed the strength of character of Aragorn or Galadrial, the two characters tempted by the Ring of Power but who rejected its seduction.
Voting Out Incumbents is the heart of democracy. One generally does not need to vote for an incumbent to keep them in office. Incumbents have stacked all the rules and procedures in their favor to assure reelection. The power of the people in a democracy is their option to vote out incumbents. It is a power the people of Nazi Germany, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or Stalin's Russia did not have.
If I were a constituent of Lamar Alexander's of Tennessee, I would vote for his challenger in 2008 because his acting on behalf of an anonymous Senator to block a Bill that favors disclosure of thinly veiled bribes called Campaign Contributions, is as big a corruption of democracy as the person who anonymously sits behind the objection to the Bill. Democracy demands the light of day on its politician's to insure they act on their behalf. For without that light of day, the powerful will act in their own interests, rather than the people's.
Comments
While I do not share your trust that the Senator in question is "certainly not a Democrat," for Democrats have just as much cause to hide their supporting contributions as Republicans do, I do agree their ability to hide their opinions from the public is intolerable.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been hurt by the availability of information on the Internet. They attack and ridicule bloggers, defame the credibility of sources, and often for the purpose of keeping their constituents confused.
Information in the hands of a Democratic nation is a source of power in the hands of the people. These Senators are NOT supposed to be our Aristocratic leaders who can easily hide their doings in darkness. Senators, like all elected representatives, are supposed to be public servants, serving their constituents in their elected capacities. Without knowing what they're doing, we cannot know if they are serving us and thus democracy breaks down a little bit more.
I wish I could trust our representatives to have the integrity and strength of spirit that Aragorn and Galadrial demonstrated, alas the reality of our government has proved that not to be the case.
Posted by: Stephanie Crist | April 28, 2007 12:08 PM
Stephanie, Lamar Smith would not object to a Democratically supported bill on behalf of an anonymous Democrat. Trust is not the issue, it is just plain logical to conclude that he would not object to a bill on behalf of an anonymous Democrat. Especially since the potential for taking heat for raising the objection was predictable.
Posted by: David R. Remer | May 1, 2007 7:10 PM