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Nit-Wittery from Daniel Schorr Of NPR's All Things Considered

Last week on July 24th, I heard an op-ed piece by NPR's Daniel Schorr on "All Things Considered". Mr. Schorr claimed that there was a lack of cooperation on Capitol Hill that was the direct result of Mr. Bush's bad poll numbers.

Introduction by Robert Siegel:

The continued clashes between Congress and the White House these days have Senior News Analyst, Daniel Schorr, thinking; can this be what the framers of the Constitution had in mind?

Mr. Schorr:

Our Constitution, designed to forge a more perfect union, rests on the assumption of a certain degree of comity between the Executive and Legislative branches. But comity is strained with President Bush suffering a 65% unpopularity rating; just one point away from President Nixon's 66% shortly before he resigned.

So now the House Judiciary Committee seeks contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton and former White House legal counsel Harriet Miers for defying Congressional subpoenas. The President throws the tattered cloak of "Executive Privilege" over them. In any event, the contempt citations would have to be enforced by a US Attorney, which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not let happen.

So the battle of Constitutional privilege goes on to the bemusement of the public.

If poll numbers are to blame for a lack off cooperation between the branches of government, then how does the public's disapproval of Congress factor into the placing of blame? My response to Mr. Schorr:

On July 24th, Daniel Schorr implied that the relationship between Congress and the President was strained in part because of President Bush's 65% disapproval ratings along with Mr. Bush's legitimate [in my opinion] claims of executive privilege. As reported in the July 18th edition of the Washington Post, polling indicates that the 83% of the public disapproves of the job Congress is doing a record high for Zogby polls.

More than a small portion of blame for the lack of comity in Washington can be placed at the feet of the Democrats in Congress who insist on being obstructive, holding hearings that are really witch hunts, watering down ethics reform legislation, and undermining the mission of our armed forces deployed in defense of our nation. Perhaps comity will return when our public servants start placing the larger public interest above partisan interests.

As is often the case, pith does not equal wisdom....from either Mr. Schorr or myself. That being said, I find it amazing that a reasonably thoughtful journalist would bother to attempt to make the case that popularity...or the lack thereof...is in some way a meaningful indicator of cooperation. At the very least, Mr. Schorr needed to have the reverse argument made so that perhaps next time he won't produce such nit-wittery.

I'm not holding my breath.

The rest of Mr. Schorr's piece deals with the tribulations of US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. Alberto had done made his bed and I'm willing to bet that he will get exactly what he deserves forthwith.

If you happen to be a regular listener to NPR's "All Things Considered" in the evening, then please listen for their listener's letters segment. Yours truly might make it on the air. I don't always get to listen to the whole thing, so if you hear something that sounds like the above, please post a comment and let me know.

by Dann 

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