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Tangled Web
Political inconsistency goes high-tech.
(Page 2 of 2)
The 1993 Senate debate on the crime bill is especially revealing. The Congressional Record transcript of Senate action is available on Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov), a not-so-user-friendly site run by the Library of Congress. (Leave a good deal of time for scrolling through extraneous material.) During this debate, Senate Republicans supported crime-bill amendments that amounted to a drive-by assault on federalism. With Sen. Al D'Amato (N.Y.), Phil Gramm sponsored an amendment that would have federalized virtually all firearms crimes, and Gramm is still taking credit for the proposal on his Web site (http://www.gramm96.org/). Dole himself sponsored the most excessive provision. The Dole amendment, later scratched in a House-Senate conference, would have made it a federal crime "to participate in, or to conspire to participate in, a criminal street gang, and to induce others to join the gang." In the Dole version of West Side Story, the role of Officer Krupke would have gone to Janet Reno.
Leave aside the silly proposition that the FBI and DEA are better equipped to handle street crime than local police. The more important point is that, if the 10th Amendment means anything, then the federal government has no business even trying. That concern, however, has not stopped Dole from including a 10th Amendment section on his Web site.
Cynical political handlers may dismiss all these points as academic piffle. They like to repeat the old joke that sincerity is the key to winning elections, and if you can fake that, you've got it made. But in the end, the joke is on them. Voters have always hated it when politicians have trifled with them, and this sentiment has grown more intense ever since President Bush broke his "Read My Lips" promise. More than anyone, Republican politicians should remember that.
In the electronic universe, politicians will find it harder and harder to get away with dissembling. On the Internet, the truth is out there.
More Articles by John J. Pitney, Jr.
- The Silence of the Cats, John J. Pitney, Jr., March 1, 2006
- Accidental Genius, John J. Pitney, Jr., October 1, 2003
- Gone With the Vote, John J. Pitney, Jr., February 1, 2003
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