Compromise is the art of getting someone else thrown under the bus
The title of this post is a comment I found at MetaFilter. It’s so perfect at describing the congressional haggling and backroom political smackdowns I’ve been privvy to in online and offline discussions about the current congressional session, that I just had to have it.
It was a comment that perfectly described Barney Frank’s “thoughtful compromise” on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). That bill would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation AND gender identity; making it not only a crime to dismiss a worker for being a lesbian but also for firing a woman for looking like man (or vice versa).
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Which brings me to Hillary Clinton and her throwing of documented and legal resident children and pregnant women under the Democrats political bus.
Read closely, the senator’s statement mentions the word proud none other than 8 times. When it comes time to mention the dropping of the Immigrant Children’s Health Insurance Act from SCHIP, the only word she manages to muster is “disappointed”
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Maybe it is too much to ask from legislators to be activists.
Maybe it is too much to ask from presidential candidates to be put principle above power.
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I don’t believe it is unreasonable to consider that these two pieces of legislation are further changing the way we interpret equality to be under the constitution.
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in liza’s blog on culturekitchen, by Liza Sabater on 9 October 2007