{"id":253,"date":"2010-01-21T14:57:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T14:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/01\/why-there-are-59-democrats-in.html"},"modified":"2010-01-21T14:57:38","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T14:57:38","slug":"why-there-are-59-democrats-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/01\/why-there-are-59-democrats-in.html","title":{"rendered":"Why There Are 59 Democrats In the Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was over on Capitol Hill the day after the Senate election in Massachusetts. Democrats didn’t appear to be in a very good mood. With just a few days distance from the election, I think that there is only one important lesson from it. It is not about Martha Coakley, it is not about President Obama and it is not even about the shape of the health care plans passed in 2009 in each house.<\/p>\n

This election ought to be seen as a wake-up call about what used to be one of the most mind-numbing topics in America: the process of legislating. Time <\/i>magazine’s Karen Tumulty nailed it on CNN when she reported<\/a> that the people she was interviewing didn’t like the manner in which the health care bills were crafted.  In other words, people don’t like government secrecy and they like it less if, emerging from the shadows, it looks like the bill has been encrusted with special favors. Congress may not be able to broadcast every negotiating session (since a lot of work gets done through chats on the subway that runs from the Capitol to the Congressional office buildings).  However, if you refuse to allow coverage of much of anything that matters in negotiations, you will give the appearance of hiding everything that matters — whether that is true or not. <\/p>\n

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It is also apparent that the public is not convinced that a day makes all the difference in the world, even if that is the day Congress wants to go home for its “district work period”\/holiday.<\/div>\n

There is no reason to believe that the people don’t deserve a peek for 48 hours at the actual, final bill that is going to be voted on and the actual language of any amendments that will be considered. This should mean that when provisions of existing law are being modified, there should be a link to the extant law so that people who may not be familiar with Section 587, subsection (b) (iii) of some statute will know what in the world is actually being changed.  This is not that difficult to produce. The legislature in Oklahoma, for example, has just such a rule.<\/p>\n

Now, I wouldn’t want anyone to think health care policy of the Democrats is the only thing shrouded in mystery.  The Bush Administration went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court <\/a>to defend the right of Vice President Dick Cheney to canoodle with lots of energy bigwigs about setting that Administration’s policy.  Do I think that little cabal had something to hide?  You bet I do, and I think the American people would all be better off knowing what went on there — claims of executive privilege be damned.<\/p>\n

So, Jay, let’s call for more openness from both parties, on all issues.  As for Senator-elect Scott Brown, let’s hope that he is a senator who will look at policy development as a way to further the interests of all Americans — and not just one 41st member of what has increasingly become a chorus of naysayers.<\/p>\n

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To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/span>  <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was over on Capitol Hill the day after the Senate election in Massachusetts. Democrats didn’t appear to be in a very good mood. With just a few days distance from the election, I think that there is only one important lesson from it. It is not about Martha Coakley, it is not about President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,217],"tags":[305,302,303,51,67,304],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress","category-health-care","tag-health-care-legislation","tag-martha-coakley","tag-massachusetts","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-scott-brown"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy There Are 59 Democrats In the Senate - Lynn v. 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}