Olympia Snowe on Congressional Attitudes

Senator Olympia Snowe (R - Maine) was the only Republican to vote for one of the Health Care Reform Bills to come out of the Congressional committees. She sat down for an interview with ABCNews and gave a very weak defense for her vote. But there was one nugget of gold in the interview.

I think for so long the art of legislating has been lost here in Congress and it’s all about just moving it along on the fast track, and I think that unfortunately the big issues have been set aside.

I think this hits the nail on the head about a major problem with the current Congress. Rather than taking on an issue, having a full public hearing and debate, and then a vote, everything in the "Democratic One Party Congress" is rushed through. This has lead to cases where Congresspeople of both sides are required to vote on multi-thousand-page legislation without any time to read it. And has allowed no opportunities for bipartisanship.

Listen to Senator Snowe, Democrats. A Congress without time to do it right is a Congress who can accomplish nothing, except for things they will regret later. "Anything now" is not better than "the right thing later".