Forget funding the government or sorting out conservative social policies. In some quarters, the question of the day in Congress was, "What would Henry Clay do?"
Revered as the nation's "Great Compromiser," Clay has made an extraordinary number of cameos in the current budget drama — a saga filled with people who claim to be aspiring to, but moving slowly toward, compromise, great or not.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday declared that Clay — a former House speaker best known for the slavery compromises that delayed the Civil War — was "one of the greatest speakers of all time."
"All legislation is based on mutual consent," Reid said, as he declared that Democrats would go no further to appease Republicans while on the edge of the first government shutdown in 15 years. "Isn't this the time to do just that? Remember the word that is so important in what Henry Clay said is 'mutual concession.' "
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentuckian, like Clay, had another interpretation.
"He would have approved very much of that bill that the House will be sending over later today," said McConnell, a Republican.
There is a little more history thrown into the story after that.
Why would someone want to be identified with a man who failed to adress the core issue and simply posponed a civil war? That sounds like the failure of democracy, not the epitome of democracy.
ReplyDeleteTo put off the bloodletting?
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