One Hundred Hours Down the Drain

Reason Online ^ | 08 Jan 07 | Brian Doherty

[rellimpank]

The First Hundred Hours have begun. (Lest anyone wonder why they aren’t already over, new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi meant congressional working hours, not real hours.) We’ve seen Pelosi show exactly how much her own wonderfulness needs to be celebrated—and her grandiose tendency to think of herself as Mangog-like living embodiment of all the glories and splendors of her entire gender.

But what of the Democrat’s 100 Hours agenda, past celebrating Pelosi-hood? It's not worth the cannoli with which it was launched.

The ethics reform stuff deserves at least a half-hearted cheer, if only because it’s nice to see bipartisanship work at its best: not in allowing government to act more swiftly, but in generating internal tensions that drive congressmen to act against their general interest as politicians in favor of their particular interests as party members.

[ctdonath2]

Someone's dreaming.

House chambers are empty this "first day as speaker".

[KarlInOhio]

There should be a complete transparency, not just earmark transparency. Every single paragraph, sentence, word and punctuation mark should be liked back the the Congressmen who put them in, the committee which approved them and who voted for or against it. I should be able to click anywhere on a bill on the web to see exactly how that part of the bill was put in. Never again should Byrd or Stevens be able to sneak things into bills and be allowed to shrug their shoulders about how in the world could that suspicious appropriation just fall into a bill.

There should also be no secret holds on bills or nominations. If a Congressman feels strongly enough to put a stop to something, he should proudly go to the podium and tell the world what he is doing and why.

[Alberta's Child]

"100 Hours" Ping.

[GoLightly]

100 "working hours"... that should take around 150 days, right?

Depends. In normal business billing each employee's hours are billed, even when they're working together. The 100 hours would get knocked off in less than an hour if we werre talking real business hours.

[packrat35]

Fine suggestions but I doubt either side wants that much openness

[art_rocks]

This usually happens in Korea for the Super Bowl. The military knows lots of military personnel will be up at an insane hour to watch the game and will not be productive the next day.

I wouldn't recommend it.