A self indulgent waste

In an article in The Oregonian on March 21 (Read it here), reporter Dave Hogan tells us the Oregon House of Representatives passed a resolution to “urge Congress and President Bush to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.” The vote was symbolic, Hogan informs us, and passed mostly along party lines. It took two emotional hours.

This act by Democrats in the Oregon House may have been symbolic, but it was also destructive and demonstrated a profound lack of judgment.

Does anyone believe that by forcing a vote on this issue, Democrats did anything to heal partisan backbiting that has hamstrung the Oregon Legislature over the last ten years? Did the debate and vote do anything to improve the image of government in Oregon?

The concept and fragility of “political capital,” was beautifully illustrated by George Bush after his last election victory. Political capital is a valuable asset. It is necessary pass critical legislation, like the rainy day fund that Oregon government finally approved, or health care legislation yet to come. It has its origin in the spirit of commonality, in shared goals, shared concerns, of knowing what can be done with bipartisan cooperation.

But political capital is an account easily depleted. It is wasted on frivolous expenditures, it is thrown away, as Bush learned, by acts of arrogance.

Was Oregon helped by an antiwar resolution that passed primarily along party lines? By a resolution that picks at the still-unhealed scab of Viet Nam? By a resolution that basically pokes a finger in the eye of the right wing because (for now) they don’t have the numbers?

Democrats need to avoid this kind of pandering. It has no real effect, and simply gives rocks for throwing to babbling right wing talk show hosts. Democrats will burn through good will needed to pass critical laws that will benefit Oregonians.

We are no apologist for the Bush administration. The Iraq war is a folly created by neoconservatives led by Dick Cheney who has been running the somewhat simple-minded George W. Bush like a sock puppet for six years. Their almost laudatory hope was to eliminate a threat to Israel, oil supplies and terror by creating a democracy in Iraq. The execution was criminally incompetent.

And there isn’t a single thing that the Oregon Legislature can do about that. The group in Salem needs to tend to business. There is plenty to do. They need to quit grandstanding, quit wasting their time and our money.