Pirate's Cove

Now that Democrats are past their 100 days, they seem to be crowing (Washington Post)

The new Democratic Congress has finally banked a legislative win, fulfilling a promise to pass a $2.10 increase in the federal minimum wage and marking the first of its "Six for ’06" campaign pledges to become law since the party’s January takeover. 

"We are making progress for the American people, governing effectively and getting results. Our work is not over, it has begun," said Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.

The minimum wage is "important — [and] long overdue," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in a floor speech yesterday before the chamber adjourned for a week.

"Although we are proud of these successes, our proudest moment will be when people receive an increase in the minimum wage, when people see the fiscal house of America’s budget in order, when they see the cargo ships inspected that are coming to America’s shores," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Caucus.

Now, that, in itself, is very interesting

"The first five months of the 110th Congress have been marked by broken promises, missed opportunities and gridlock caused by strife within the majority party’s ranks," said Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio. 

"The only meaningful accomplishment occurred yesterday when Congress passed legislation to fully fund American troops fighting the war on terror — a bill that was carried on the strength of a unified Republican Party," he said, referring to the emergency-spending bill, which 140 Democrats opposed because it had no troop withdrawal plan.

Voting against the bill, which provided for the increase in the minimum wage, were Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and Barak Obama, as well as Obey, Ellison, Frank, Harman, Hastings, Jackson-Lee, "Cold Cash" Jefferson, and Woolsey. Some of the most prominent Democrats, "champions" of the poor and middle class, and all voted against their own "accomplishment." At least Hoyer and Emanuel aren’t being complete hypocrites when discussing the bill.

What have they really done?

Republicans tallied the 26 bills with Mr. Bush’s signature, and noted that 13 named post offices or federal buildings and five extended laws already on the books, such as the Small Business Act. The other eight included bipartisan bills such as a breast and cervical cancer early detection program reauthorization and a revamping of the congressional page board in the wake of the congressman Mark Foley scandal.

Democrats defended their domestic record yesterday, outlining the several dozen bills that passed the House in their first 150 days in power. Those include ending big oil subsidies and implementing the remaining 9/11 commission’s recommendations.

The problem is, few of those bills have been considered in the Senate, where Democrats have just a one-seat advantage.

When it comes down to it, very few pieces of legislation will make it from the House to the Senate, or from the Senate to be passed in the House. They have a hard time getting legislation past the committees. It took them 18 days to pass a Bill expressing support for the residents of Greenfield, Kansas, the town which was devastated by a tornado. The Mother’s Day Bill is still sitting in committee.

In fact, the House did very little on Friday. Most activity occured in the Senate. The most important thing the House did was to call for "an adjournment or recess," sponsored by Steny Hoyer. Now they get to go home and hear it from the Nutroots and other assorted wacko’s for not ending Operation Iraqi Freedom immediately.

But, let’s nor forget: 140 Democrats in the House and 10 in the Senate voted against not only the Iraq funding bill, but against raising the minimum wage. Hey, they were the ones who stuck that in there.

More: Way, way late edit. Here is an active link that shows that the Iraq war funding bill and the minimum wage hike were in the same Bill.