Advice for the new Congress

and damn good advice it is, from devilstower at kos...

When drafting the bills of the first hundred hours, follow these simple rules:

1) One item per bill. Nothing is more important than this. That minimum wage bill has to be a minimum wage bill, not minimum wage plus ten other things we thought were a good idea. I don't care if your own mother is dying and you think putting an extra wing on some hospital would help. One subject. Period. Give the Republicans no opportunity to claim they were voting against some rider or secondary item.

2) Simple language. There should be nothing in these bills that can't be deciphered by someone with a sixth grade reading level. Put on a shock collar that hits you with 200 volts every time you get tempted to create legislation that's nothing but a glue of legalisms holding together word by word amendments of old legislation. Start with a clean sheet. Fill it with fresh, clear words. Don't let anyone argue that the legislation is vague, or "tricky." As a guideline, just think that Bush should be able to understand what he's signing -- or what he's vetoing. And so should everyone else.

3) Do it in public. Forty-eight hours before the vote on any bill, put together a press release and send the full text of the bill to every news service. Let people open their paper on Wednesday and see exactly what you're going to vote about on Thursday. There should be no midnight surprises as text is thrown into a bill seconds before a vote, and with nice simple language, you won't be still making discoveries about bills you voted on months before.

4) Sign your name. The legislators who author these clear, direct pieces of legislation deserve to have their names associated with them prominently. So should every legislator who effectively argues for some change in the wording. There should never again be any text on a piece of legislation whose authorship is a mystery. And hey, give the newcomers a chance to get their pen engaged, don't hog all the good topics among a few top folks.

5) Be brief. In ninety percent of the cases, that means keeping your bills under one page. I'm not kidding. Most of the time, one paragraph is enough. If you really feel like you need to stretch something to two pages, you should start to feel a little guilty. If you go past that... time to dig up that shock collar again. Look at the incredible brevity of the Constitution and stick with that as your model. Don't try to anticipate every situation when you write a bill. You'll spend a hundred days thinking, a thousand pages writing, and you'll still miss some big ones once it's out there. Keep it short. Plug the holes later with more short, clear, crisp pieces of legislation.

6) Stay out of the weeds. I know you've got to be thinking that this strategy doesn't leave much room for you to be building that new highway through your home town, or dedicating that new library in some patron's honor. Good. It's not supposed to, because that kind of detail is not where you should be playing. Give some transportation money to the states, and then let them figure it out. Republicans talked a good game on giving more authority to the states, but they never actually trusted local governments enough to stay out of every detail. Be the party that actually gives the states your trust.

7) Defy expectations. The Republicans think that, despite the sweeping victory on Tuesday, Democrats are still going to be hampered by slim majorities and a Vetoer-in-chief. They think you're going to wrangle amongst yourselves. Instead, grab the ball, run, and never, ever look back. Don't just pass one major new bill a week, pass ten. Make it your mission to either move the country forward in the next eight hours, or force Bush to hold it back. Shock them with your audacity, then surpass yourselves.

If you do this, if your agenda is composed of short, simple, powerful statements composed in clear language and presented to the America people day by day, this congress won't just be successful, it will be a revelation. Never again will anyone accept the idea that all politicians are the same. Never again will anyone settle for a government that works in the shadows, and whose operation is based on a game of tit for tat where each exchange cost millions, if not billions. Never again will anyone accept a huge pile of pork just to get some slender benefit. No one's back will get scratched, but everyone will enjoy unmatched gratitude and respect.

This is how we roll: from victory, to victory. Out in the open, without secrets, without hidden agendas. Do this for the first hundred hours. Who knows? You might discover you like being truthful with yourselves and with the public. It might even become a habit.

ya know what...? i absolutely LOVE to read stuff about how to make things good, how to create the kind of world we all would like to see... but ya know what i like EVEN MORE...? when there's a snowball's chance in hell to actually see it happen and it isn't flying in the face of some of the darkest, most shadowy players ever seen on the world stage... ok, let's be absolutely clear... those dark forces haven't been banished... not by a long shot... but reading something like the above that could actually be put into practice by those folks taking seats in the next congress makes me smile in my heart... do you suppose it could actually happen like devilstower describes...? wouldn't it be great if it did...?

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