THE LAME DUCK CONGRESS

The election is over, and the rhetoric begins. President Bush is talking about how much he is looking forward to working with the next congress to face what he called "the great issues facing America." He has said his team will "respect the results" of the last election, and the voter mandate.

This may be all well and true. He may have the best intentions of making the best of the carnage his party experienced in the past election. But, lets be honest. His immediate (two months) agenda is to ram-rod through congress anything he will not be able to get passed once the Dems get in.

In my opinion, priority one will be the approval of his new Secretary of defense. Number two will be approval of a bill that will legalize his illegal wiretapping program, and destroy the present law that limits the President's abilities to abuse his power in this fashion. This is the bill co-authored by Arlen Spector and VP Cheney. This bill in my opinion, is an extremely ill advised effort to overturn the controls placed on executive powers after Vietnam and Watergate. The administration is seeking to turn back the clock, and build upon their success they achieved in this area with the Military Commissions Act.

Number three will be to keep the federal money flowing.

The rest, time permitting is an odd assortment of issues. He has talked frequently about "bipartisan energy legislation." He wants to grant Vietnam's entrance to the WTO. He wants to reaffirm John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations, but this will involve much debate, and it would be foolish to waste any of his remaining time left on this.

He is also looking for approval of a deal to sell India civilian nuclear technology, despite their unwillingness to abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. I personally agree with this one. India will get the technology from somewhere, it should be from us, or more appropriately, the US. Obviously, we need better relations with India, Pakistan and China in the region. Lets do it.

All in all, the next two months will be a very busy and interesting time on Capitol hill. The voters will be a mixture of re-elected officials side by side with newly unemployed legislators. The wounds are still fresh from the recent elections. Some of the elections were fierce and hottly contested. Some were downright ugly.

For the sake of the nation, I hope the lame duck congress can prudently decide what should be discussed and acted on for the next two months, and what should be delayed until the next full Congress is in session. With the completion of the election, the positioning of congressional leaders for a possible bid for the White House has started in full swing. Let's keep our eyes on the ball, folks, and do what is right for the nation. Let's hope they set aside the inclination to keep their jobs, in favor of doing their jobs.