LET'S TRY AGAIN TO GET THE SIGHTS SET -- For Just A Minute Radio -- Tues. Jan. 04 110104

            It’s hard to know where one conflict leaves off for another begins ---

 

            This is the time the 111^th Congress was supposed to give up the stage and let the 112^th get sworn in take up the duties of representing their constituents accurately and faithfully ...  But some folks just don’t want give up the spotlight – at least not right away.

 

            I looked rather carefully at the video of some of the Sunday News Shows… it’s hard to sift out the real from the just sort of spouting sand in one another’s faces.  In order to be a good legislator I think you need to take some training at the poker table – although that seems rather devious.  Still if you tip your hand let ‘em know what you’re *really* going to do – or what you’re really aiming for in settlement, then – as the saying goes: “You’re leaving money on the table.”

 

            I don’t know how to manage that… It would be a lot easier to appreciate the representing of what representatives are *supposed* to be doing if they would drop the masquerades and just speak plainly… and maybe they do inside the conference room… but it’s hard to know where the truth ends or begins if there’s a great deal of posturing going on.

 

            Telling you all this isn’t particularly helpful because I’m not on the scene or able to talk to at least a ‘representation’ of the attitude in the opposing forces… all in all it becomes a tangled skein of things and you’re left to pick out the true lines of bargaining… and discard the rest.  I suppose that’s what makes it such a challenge to lawyers and the like – the difference is in a courtroom the judge is responsible to see that Justice prevails… in Congress or any legislative body … it’s usually “time will tell” … and sometimes “time” comes to the table too late.  In my opinion that’s one of the reasons we run up such deficits… our ‘servants’ – that is the civil servants who are not elected but come to their positions either by favor or by craft – don’t always represent the wishes of those they are supposedly representing… or they have ‘other forces’ distracting or distorting the view.

 

            All that sounds – and seems very vague.  And I suppose if you operate in that arena for a long time you either pick up the technique or learn how to discern the cues that tell you what’s really going happening.  Perhaps that’s why those who are following tracks where things have gone wrong are quick to say… “Show me the money.”  That’s a rather crass way to put it – but it is probably the scraping sounds of fingernails across the blackboard that tell us we’re either getting the truth or we’re getting the short end of the stick.

 

            A lot of metaphors go into composing that picture… No wonder the old codger replied when asked if he had voted recently – “No sir” was his response. “Never registered, never voted – never had a part in turning a good man bad.”   Well… I suppose that’s one way of ‘avoiding’ the problem… but it doesn’t make for good, honest government.  But then if you don’t have good, honest people to begin with… I don’t think you’re likely to get the result you want anyway.

 

            Well… time to close up shop.  See you tomorrow at the Bait Shop and Sushi Bar if you have the time. (J)

 

            Cordially, IN HIM

            Jack

 

Delayed audio link:

 

http://www.wmuu.com/blog/category/audio/just-a-minute/

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

LET’S TRY AGAIN TO GET THE SIGHTS SET

          Just a minute: - Monday we tried to take aim at what’s likely to happen – and now it begins.

Congress re-convenes gets sworn in and the fight resumes. Am I being unfair in describing what’s going on as a fight? Frankly, that’s how both sides see it and I’m looking at a magazine generally not read by the public called Congressional Quarterly – but this one for some reason is called a weekly. 

They describe – “sweeping changes which have been signed into law now becomes a fierce battle … [it] will make Obama’s next two years a regulatory presidency.”

Gentlemanly language? – Washington says it’s a fight “preceded by 18 months of haggling over every word” – So you get the idea. It’s the largest army of lobbyists ever assembled – covering it set new air time records on C-Span.

Well… that’s how legislative sausage is created … just don’t look too closely or expect too much.

<>I’m Jack Buttram. (END)

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