Published here with Paul’s permission.

Something is Rotten… in the U.S. Senate

by Paul R. Hollrah

What is perhaps the most remarkable event in the history of the U.S. Senate occurred on May 21, 1856. As Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA) denounced an attack by 800 pro-slavery Democrats on the small abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, he was suddenly and viciously attacked from behind by Preston Brooks, a South Carolina Democrat. Brooks struck Sumner over the head repeatedly with a cane… knocking him unconscious… and when his Republican colleagues rushed to his side they were attacked by other Democrats and a major fist fight ensued.

Unfortunately, Democrats of today are no less hateful than their 19th century forbears. To prove the point we need only recall the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. What likely prevents today’s Democrats from engaging in the same level of violence is the presence of TV cameras inside the Senate chamber and elsewhere.

Yes, a few Republicans have overstepped the bounds of propriety and have paid a high price for their indiscretions. Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) kissed one of his female aides, uninvited, and Democrats destroyed his career over the incident.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) made a patronizing remark at Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party and Democrats used the incident to drive him from his leadership position. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) failed to report the value of repairs to his Alaska home, paid for by an oilfield contractor, and he is now on his way to prison. And Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) took too wide a “stance” in a Minneapolis airport restroom stall and an undercover police officer arrested him for homosexual solicitation.

But what about today’s Democrats? Who and what are they?

Sen. Joe Biden, the current vice president-elect, plagiarized a law review article while a student at Syracuse University. Then, in 1988, he plagiarized part of a speech by British Labor Party leader, Neil Kinnock, an episode that drove him from the Democratic presidential primaries.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the current President Pro-Tem of the Senate, is a former Grand Kleagle (recruiter) for the West Virginia Ku Klux Klan.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) compared the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. troops to the treatment of prisoners of the Nazis, the Soviet gulags, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), a native of Illinois and a longtime resident of Arkansas, moved to New York and won a U.S. Senate seat as a carpetbagger.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) resigned as chairman of the Senate’s Military Construction Subcommittee after it was learned that she had steered more than $1 billion in defense contracts to companies owned or controlled by her husband.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) drove a car off a tidelands bridge on Massachusetts’ Chappaquiddick Island, leaving his young female companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, to die. He later used his family’s influence to plead guilty to a reduced charge of “leaving the scene of an accident.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) refuses to release 100 pages of his military records, giving credence to the suspicion that he received a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1971 or 1972.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) was seated illegally in the Senate in January 2003. His corrupt predecessor, Robert Torricelli, was given “the hook” by New Jersey Democrats 36 days before the 2002 General Election when it appeared that he would lose to his Republican opponent. New Jersey law stipulates that a candidate may not withdraw any later than 51 days prior to an election, but the Democrat-dominated New Jersey Supreme Court ignored the law and allowed Democrats to make an eleventh-hour substitution: Lautenberg for Torricelli.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is the subject of an ongoing investigation into a shady land deal at Bullhead City, AZ. Prior to pushing through an appropriation for the construction of a new highway bridge, Reid purchased a 160-acre tract of land nearby. With the construction of the bridge, the value of Reid’s land is expected to increase from $10,000 to $290,000.

In Minnesota, failed Air America talk show host, Al Franken, is attempting to steal the Senate seat of incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. In the wake of a slim Coleman victory on November 4, Minnesota Democrats have continued to “find” previously uncounted ballots. They have failed to “find” any misplaced Coleman votes and it appears they will continue to “find” additional Franken votes until he has accumulated enough votes to declare himself the victor.

But the true nature of the Democratic Party is most evident in the way in which they approach the task of filling the Senate seats vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton.

In Illinois, Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested by FBI agents and charged with attempting to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. However, as the beleaguered governor attempts to fulfill his statutory responsibility to appoint a replacement, party leaders in Washington and elsewhere wrestle with the problem of how to deal with Blagojevich’s choice: former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris.

As Democrats posture before the TV cameras, trying to make it appear as if they are genuinely shocked and outraged by Blagojevich’s behavior, they have announced that any replacement appointed by the governor would be “tainted” and that they will not seat that senator. So the question arises, when Burris shows up in the Senate to be sworn in, how will they justify their refusal to seat him… given that: a) he is black, b) he is eligible to serve, and c) he has been properly and legally appointed by the governor of his state?

The Democrats’ dilemma is further complicated by confirmation from the governor’s office that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid telephoned Blagojevich on December 3, suggesting that he not appoint Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr., Cong. Danny Davis, or Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, all of whom are black… making it all but certain that Dingy Harry is caught red-handed on the FBI wiretaps. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Reid recommended the appointment of either Illinois Veterans Affairs Secretary Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, both white women.

In Delaware, Democrat Governor Ruth Minner has agreed to appoint Senator Biden’s longtime Chief of Staff, Edward Kaufman, as his replacement… with the understanding that he will resign in two years so that Biden’s son, Beau, now serving in Iraq, can take his father’s Senate seat. Biden appears unconcerned that he is adding blatant nepotism to his long history of plagiarism.

And in New York, Democrat Governor David Paterson is under heavy pressure from liberals to appoint former president John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg… a woman with no apparent experience or qualifications… to the seat being vacated by New York’s carpetbagger senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Aside from being great theater, it is nothing more than Democrats going about the business of being Democrats. For them, politics is merely a game in which they feel entitled to make up the rules as they go along. Recall the Clinton trial proceedings of February 1999. In trying the impeachment charges, in which House managers presented an airtight case that Bill Clinton had knowingly and purposely committed perjury, engaged in conspiracy, and obstructed justice, every one of the forty-five Senate Democrats voted “not guilty,” in violation of their oath to do “fair and impartial justice.” Thirty-five of those senators are still in the Senate today.

The world’s greatest deliberative body? Not quite. There is a terrible stench emanating from the Democratic side of the aisle in the United States Senate these days. It is the aroma of a once-great institution rotting from the inside out.

Mr. Hollrah is a writer living in Oklahoma.