Here’s how voters can reverse the decline of Congress — Tampa Bay Times

How do we move toward a Congress that accomplishes more and isn’t reeling so often from one potential government shutdown to another?

Published Aug. 16

Over my time working in the Senate as a staffer, running for Congress, serving as the U.S. trade ambassador and writing three books about the Senate, I have undoubtedly given more thought to Congress than any reasonable person should. The presidential race has become electric in the last few weeks, and I worry that congressional elections are likely to get even less attention than they usually do. This is unfortunate, because despite our focus on the presidency, America cannot have a functioning government without the legislative branch. And it is in dire shape.

While Congress has always been the butt of jokes — Will Rogers once called it “the only American criminal class” — the truth is that we had a capable Congress doing the hard work of governing from the 1950s through the 1980s, with Gallup polls showing a respectable level of public support. Things changed dramatically 30 years ago, when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the House. Gingrich viewed bipartisan cooperation with contempt; he saw politics as war; and he rode the rise of 24/7 cable news to transform the discourse of American politics to a harsher, hateful tone.

Ira Shapiro: The imperative of a Democratic Senate — Post Gazette

IRA SHAPIRO, Special to the Post-Gazette, October 18, 2024

As a Senate staffer of an earlier generation who later wrote three books about the Senate, I have plainly spent more time thinking about the Senate than any reasonable person should. But even as public attention focuses on the extraordinarily high stakes race for the presidency, it is important not to overlook the importance of the Senate.

The truth is both that Bob Casey has been a fine senator and that at a different time, David McCormick could also be. But control of the Senate hangs by a thread, and that reality presents Pennsylvania voters with a choice as stark as night and day.

The Biden-Harris administration has the right ideas about reforming the out-of-control jurists. Whoever wins the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago should go even further.

by Caroline Fredrickson and Ira Shapiro

July 20, 2024

The Supreme Court is out of the news, and reporters are focused on the presidential election, including whether Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, the despicable attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and the nomination of J. D. Vance for vice president. But no one should take the summer off from what the Court is doing. America is facing an assault on our democracy, carried out by the Court’s supermajority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and lower court judges. Democrats must respond to this attack, no matter their nominee, even if the Court is out of the headlines with its term concluded earlier this month. We’re glad to see reports that President Biden will soon propose term limits and a binding ethics code for Supreme Court justices.

It’s time. In February 2017, shortly after Trump took office, The Washington Post, which first reported the Biden-Harris looming reforms, adopted its slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.” But democracy can die in broad daylight. Witness Federal District Court Judge Aileen Cannon casting aside long-standing precedents this week to rule that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith is unconstitutional in the Mar-a-Lago documents case over which she’s presiding in Florida. Then there’s the Supreme Court’s stunning decision this month finding the president virtually immune from prosecution. The opinion, authored by Roberts, may scuttle the remaining federal and state cases against Trump, even if Trump loses the election. In New York State, where Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts related to his hush money and election interference scheme, sentencing has been delayed because of the Court’s ruling and may never be carried out.

Lessons in Leadership from Howard Baker — Washington Monthly

Fifty years after Richard Nixon’s resignation, the life example of the Republican vice chair of the Senate Watergate Committee still resonates.

by Ira Shapiro and Keel HuntAugust 14, 2024

It has been 40 years since Howard Baker, the Tennessee Republican, at the peak of his career, retired from the Senate at the age of 59 after serving three terms, including four years as Minority Leader and four as Majority Leader. Baker reached for the presidency and was defeated; he is not a household name like Ted Kennedy or John McCain, and there are no buildings in Washington. D.C., named for him. He is virtually unknown to those under 50, and even older Americans recall him only for his famous question during the Watergate hearings: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

And yet, Howard Baker may have been the most universally admired political leader of the past 50 years. It was often said that if the senators could vote for president in a secret ballot, Baker would have won. Given the public’s deep and abiding distrust of politicians and anger about the failure of our institutions, Baker’s career teaches lessons in leadership that are more relevant today than ever before.

For Howard Baker, politics was the family business. His father, Howard Henry Baker, Sr., was a Tennessee congressman who died in office, and his stepmother, Irene Baker, succeeded him. In 1951, Baker married Joy Dirksen, the daughter of the legendary Republican Everett Dirksen, who would go on to become Senate Minority Leader and the namesake of the Senate office building. Dirksen played an essential part in Baker’s rise after an early stumble. He lost his first bid for the Senate in 1964, as the Republicans led by Barry Goldwater were crushed nationally. But he ran again two years later, won handily, and reached the Senate at 41.

Experts say the president-elect, in pushing for recess appointments, is asking the Senate to abdicate its constitutional duty to either confirm or reject executive branch nominees.

November 14, 2024

By Colby Itkowitz

As Donald Trump moves to fill his administration with polarizing figures like former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and onetime presidential rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he may need Congress to heed his demand to allow him to bypass the traditional confirmation process and appoint his picks without Senate approval.

The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party

The Kentucky senator long intended to bend Congress to his will.

By Michael Tackett, Simon & Schuster, 416 pp.

Reviewed by Ira Shapiro, November 19, 2024

The Kentucky senator long intended to bend Congress to his will.

In 2021, Senator Mitch McConnell learned that Michael Tackett, a respected veteran journalist and author, was planning to write his biography. McConnell, notoriously guarded, encouraged his staff and other close associates to speak with Tackett. He also gave Tackett access to his papers, including sensitive oral histories, and sat with him for 50 hours of interviews. McConnell’s decision to cooperate benefited both the author and him. Tackett’s The Price of Power is, thus far, the most comprehensive and fair-minded account of McConnell’s life and career.

A Second Trump Term Poses a Crucial Test of the Senate’s Independence — The New York Times

President-elect Donald J. Trump is threatening to challenge the institution’s historic role, and the Constitution, with his prospective nominees and threats to push the boundaries of executive authority.

The New York Times

By Carl Hulse, Reporting from the Capitol, Dec. 1, 2024

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s determination to crash over traditional governmental guardrails will present a fundamental test of whether the Republican-controlled Senate can maintain its constitutional role as an independent institution and a check on presidential power.

With Mr. Trump putting forward a raft of contentious prospective nominees and threatening to challenge congressional authority in other ways, Republicans who will hold the majority come January could find themselves in the precarious position of having to choose between standing up for their institution or bowing to a president dismissive of government norms.

The clearest and most immediate point of tension is likely to be Mr. Trump’s efforts to skip the Senate’s traditional confirmation process to install loyalists, including some with checkered backgrounds, in his cabinet. But the president-elect has also signaled he expects Republicans on Capitol Hill to accede to his wishes on policy, even if that means ceding Congress’s control over federal spending. Both are powers explicitly given to the legislative branch in the Constitution.

Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.More about Carl Hulse

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 2, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Senate Faces Decisive Test Of Its Power.

Monthly Archives: December 2024