President Indulges in a Little Congress Bashing : Some reforms are needed; so is a bit less partisanship

President Bush’s speech Thursday on what’s wrong with Congress won’t challenge the Federalist Papers as a timeless document. It was partisan in some spots, blind to the Administration’s own faults in others and conceptually not much deeper than the average photo op. Still, Bush said some things worth saying, and no doubt served to stir the D.C. scene.

Congress may get so angry it will try to get even, if not try to reform. In fact, what Congress should do is to heed quickly those aspects of the President’s tongue-lashing with which the public agrees.

No doubt the one recommendation few Americans can have any quarrel with is the President’s insistence that “Congress ought to follow the same laws it imposes on everyone else.� Few have any idea of the extent to which Congress is a legal island unto itself. Not only is Congress in a position to allow itself to bounce checks (a scandalous reality recently corrected) but it is able to keep out of its territorial corridors almost any law it choses to ignore. It can, and has, exempted itself from civil rights, equal pay, harassment and non-discrimination laws. “This practice,� said Bush, “creates the appearance and reality of a privileged class of rulers who stand above the law.� True enough.

Bush also worked up a lot of steam about congressional leaks. The President was especially huffy about the leak of the FBI report containing Prof. Anita Hill’s allegations against Clarence Thomas, now a member of the Supreme Court. He called for the appointment of a special Senate counsel to “find out who leaked what and for what reasons.�

But before the President gets his hopes too high, he should realize that it’s rare for these leak probes ever to amount to much. For one thing, leaking to the press is a finely tuned, well-developed art in Washington (surely the President knows that). For another thing, Congress’ rooting interest in a leak-proof Washington environment is no higher than support for the New York Giants in the game against the Redskins Sunday. The reason is that Republican congressmen like to leak as much as Democrats. Or for that matter as much as the Pentagon. Or for that matter as much as the White House. Leaking, for better or worse, is as Washington as apple pie.

The President described the overtime hearing into the Clarence Thomas character issue as “a circus and a travesty.� Most Americans might agree with that.

But most will also recall that Republican as well as Democratic senators asked silly questions or raised absurd points. One recalls the image of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) waving a copy of “The Exorcist� as readily as anything else that happened.

The President also called for a faster Senate confirmation process. Not a bad idea, but what would also help is if the Administration’s nominees were just a little less controversial, a little less in-your-face ideological.

The problem is not only the confirmation process, though reforms should be considered. It’s also the divisive nature of some of these nominees--whether Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas.

Too bad the President of the United States didn’t say anything about that.