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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
'Accidental Senator' defends Obama's
Congress<http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Accidental_Senator_defends_Obamas_Congres.html>

Boy, the liberal press is steamed. The U.S.
Senate<http://topics.philly.com/topic/U.S._Senate>
is an *"empty chamber"*<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/09/100809fa_fact_packer>
,
says The New Yorker <http://topics.philly.com/topic/The_New_Yorker> this
summer. "*Washington is
broken,"*<http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/09/broken-washington-201009>
drowned
in "systemic corruption," says Vanity
Fair<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Vanity_Fair>.
The Senate took a whole "year and a half" to pass financial and healthcare
reform, proving it's leaderless, *David
Broder*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/04/AR2010080405451.html>
says
in the Washington Post<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Washington_Post_Company>
.

*Manure,* says Ted Kaufman, Delaware's<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Delaware>
lame-duck U.S. Senator, whose brief Congressional career started and will
end with Obama's <http://topics.philly.com/topic/Barack_Obama> tumultuous
first two years: He took his onetime boss Vice President Joe
Biden's<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Joe_Biden>
seat in the post-inaugural<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Obama_Inauguration>
rush, used it as a pulpit to call for breaking up big banks despite his
home state's ties to Citigroup <http://topics.philly.com/topic/Citigroup>
and Bank of America <http://topics.philly.com/topic/Bank_of_America>
and JPMorgan
Chase <http://topics.philly.com/topic/J.P._Morgan_Chase_%26_Co.>, and will
retire after his successor's election this fall.

Kaufman says America's political junkies don't understand real corruption.
Look at those giants who dominated the early Republic: Daniel
Webster<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Daniel_Webster>
changed his anti-railroad stance to support big railroads after they gave
him a stack of cash; Benjamin
Franklin<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Benjamin_Franklin>
crowed in his Autobiography that serving in
Pennsylvania<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Pennsylvania>
government enabled him to direct public contracts to his famous printing
press.

That doesn't happen anymore? "Here's what happens: Let's say you're
the NRA<http://topics.philly.com/topic/National_Rifle_Association> .
I'm running against Harry for the Senate. You ask Harry about gun
control<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Gun_Control>.
He says 'I'm agnostic. Maybe a little anti-assault rifle.' So you ask me.
I say, 'I own guns. I've been a member of the NRA since long before I
entered politics.' And you give me $5,000. That's not corruption. You're
just supporting what I already believe."

So that's OK? "The problem is, for the rest of my career I'm on the
NRA ticket. But I can't evolve my position. Or I lose their support. They
lock me in place. If I let them...

"If I genuinely believe corporate America has too much power, so therefore
Harry goes and says that he doesn't, he'll get all the money. That's the
real corruption. It's not what happens with the issues you genuinely care
about. It's what happens with issues you don't care about...

"Now, I believe there are fewer Senators being bought than ever
before." How's that possible? "Because of the sunlight. The financial
disclosure. The transparency in campaign contributions." We're just more
aware of what corruption there is? "Yes," he says. "The reforms in the
lobbying law, the increased campaign disclosures, it makes us look more
corrupt. When it's actually less.

"And it's the times. That's one reason I gotta get out of this: When things
are bad, it's bad to be in power. Look, back in 1990, I asked Ed
Rendell<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Ed_Rendell>,
'Why do you want to be mayor of
Philadelphia<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Philadelphia>? It's
an awful job.' He said, 'Ted, expectations are so low, I can succeed!'"

Kaufman is angry at the suggestion Obama's
Congress<http://topics.philly.com/topic/U.S._Congress>
has accomplished little of the promised change - no energy policy, no
immigration, no lasting settlements in the deadly Asian wars. He especially
rejects the complaint Congress bickered for more than a year over both key
Obama bills: "How long since we last really reformed the banking laws? Since
the Depression," unless you count the anti-reforming deregulation of the
1990s. "How long since we fixed healthcare? Not since Lyndon Johnson" passed
Medicare.

In fact, "this Congress has accomplished more" than
Johnson's<http://topics.philly.com/topic/Lyndon_B._Johnson>
Great Society reforms, Kaufman told me. "Count the bills we passed. Compare
the record."

Yes, he wants to write a book. Though whenever he starts writing about
politics, he keeps winding back to his father, who lost his Penn basketball
scholarship to an injury, worked his way to a degree anyhow, and wound up
teaching art in Philadelphia public schools. Not an auspicious career, but a
thoughtful one, that made a difference in people's lives, says Kaufman.


Read more:
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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.co