Pushed Around

Things keep getting more and more tense in Congress. The New York Times reported on Friday that Senator Arlen Specter is getting snippy with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He feels that Reid cut him off at the end of the marathon overnight session earlier this week. "The leadership is setting a dictatorial tone," Specter is reported to have said. "Senators didn't get here to be pushed around." Senators didn't get there to whine, either, but that's another story. I'd be tempted to say that the spat between Specter and Reid might paralyze the Senate if the Senate weren't already effectively paralyzed--at least when the subject is Iraq--by Specter and his filibustering Republican colleagues who won't allow an up-or-down vote on bringing the troops home.

But what if Specter's wrong? What if he's got an inflated sense of himself and his position? What if senators and representatives weren't there to be pushed around by party leadership but by the president? You'd end up with a chief executive who believes he can control Congress and tell legislators who or what they could or could not investigate. And you can bet that he'd quickly place himself and his administration off limits. Perhaps we'll soon get to see whether Specter votes to assert himself or get pushed around when it comes to executive privilege.