Where do these people think they are, the House of Commons? The other day
the U.S. Senate, sometimes laughingly referred to as the World's Greatest
Deliberative Body, considered a motion of no confidence in the country's
attorney general.
To what end? There is no constitutional provision in this country for a vote
of no confidence. It's a parliamentary, not congressional, maneuver. And
should remain so. Let's leave it to the Brits-like cricket, haggis and
toad-in-a-hole.
In a parliamentary system, a government that loses a vote of no confidence
is toppled and may even have to face new elections. Here our chief executive
serves for a fixed term-four years, for all you civics students out
there-and the members of his Cabinet, including the attorney general, and,
yes, all those federal prosecutors who just got fired, serve at his
pleasure. Not at the pleasure of the U.S. Senate.
So what was the point of this motion of no confidence?
The short answer: none at all.
The news stories kept referring to the vote as "symbolic." It would have
been a way to signal the Senate's displeasure with the current attorney
general. A particularly pretentious way. Like putting on an English accent.
Like the ones you hear these days on tonier office receptionists and NPR.
Trendy bunch, these senators.
Why not just pass a good ol', all-American resolution of censure? That's
what the Whigs did to Andrew Jackson-before the Jacksonians came back in the
next election and expunged the resolution from the Senate journal in a
boisterous ceremony. Resolutions of censure can backfire.
Even if this if this vote of no confidence had passed-instead, it failed to
garner the 60 votes required to proceed-the effect would have been the same:
nothing at all. Symbolic votes are just that, only symbolic.
It's the president of the United States, currently one George W. Bush, who
gets to pick the members of his Cabinet, including the attorney general.
Here's what he had to say about the Senate's action, or lack of same, last
week: "They can have their votes of no confidence, but it isn't going to
make the determination about who serves in my government."
Linguistic note: In his typical (awful) way with words, the president tends
to use the terms administration and government interchangeably, but that's a
whole other problem. The problem with the Senate, at least this week, is
that it seems to have confused itself with a European parliament.