Congressman Tom Davis, who heads the House GOP’s campaign arm, says, “It’s all about body count.” He’s talking about the Republican majority in the House.
Today that majority is just five seats.
When we think about politics, most of us think about the issues. We want to know where candidates stand and then vote accordingly. If we embrace a particular political party, again, it’s usually on the basis of their platform and principles.
Yet to leadership of both parties in Congress stands on the issues seem virtually irrelevant. All these professional politicians care about is holding power and the perks and privileges that come with it. What’s important is the body count.
ake Rep. Charles Rangel, please, a 30-year incumbent Democrat. When Newt Gingrich was still Speaker of the House, Rangel regularly assailed Gingrich as worse than Attila the Hun. Gingrich was the incarnation of all evil.
Yet when asked recently about the virtue of getting Republicans to switch parties to the Democrats, here’s what Rangel had to say: “We’re counting numbers. If Newt Gingrich was a member of the New York delegation and we could convince him to cross over, we would.”
Did you get that? For voters, politics is about principles. About ideas. But for the bodies in suits in Washington, D.C., what counts is the pursuit of power.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.