Sunday, Dangerous Sunday

This morning as I was reading the latest hijinks of those kids on Capitol Hill, I noticed that Queen Nancy the last intends to bring the 'health/care/student loan/whatever else' bill to the floor for a vote on Sunday.

Sunday?

Again?

Ever since the whole financial implosion started, we, the suffering people, have been treated to an endless series of Sunday actions by our government. Why always Sunday?

Don't they have office hours? Don't they have time during the week to stop collecting campaign contributions to actually do their jobs?

Throughout the financial mess, literally every decision was made on a Sunday and announced Sunday night. Usually after midnight.

Bear Stearns gifted to Jamie Dimon - Sunday.
Merrill gifted to Bank of America - Sunday.
Lehman let fail - Sunday.
Goldman Sachs bank charter - Sunday.
AIG - Sunday after Sunday.
Fed opening new "windows" for free money to Wall Street - Sunday.
Washington Mutual gifted to Jamie Dimon - Sunday.
GMAC bank charter - Sunday.
Auto bailout - Sunday.

And now that the so-called emergency is health care legislation - Sunday. The bogus bill was released to the public last Sunday at 10:30 PM. And now Nancy the last wants to vote on Sunday.

I try to look at things as they are and not weave in conspiracies and the like, but this is just getting silly. They have the bill. They are in the Capitol. Why not just have the vote? Why Sunday?

I think there are three reasons:
1) They hope most of us won't actually watch on a Sunday.
2) The media tends to stand down some on weekends.
3) They look oh so heroic working the weekends.

In order -

We do watch on Sunday. Most Americans are smarter than that and will pay attention, especially after the series of giveaways that Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke pulled on Sundays.

The media is finally waking up and realizing that their weekend relax is not a good thing.

They would look more heroic if they actually did their jobs Monday through Friday instead of racing from camera to camera and contributor to contributor. Instead, they use the work week to dilly dally and make great sound bytes. And then they open the Capitol on Sunday - at no minor expense to the taxpayer - so they can appear to be feverishly tending to the people's business.

Reid, Pelosi, Boehner and McConnell have created a false timeline so that they can appear to have to work on Sunday. They seem to think that this horrific piece of legislation needs to happen immediately, after a year of stalling. And they have told that lie so often that it has become a media blessed truth.

Nonsense. It is really all about the ability to cut back room deals and then look like they have been working so hard that they need a Sunday to get things done. Well, they have been bouncing this one in the air for over a year. This is no emergency. The republic will not fail if we have to wait until Monday.

No matter. Queen Nancy wants to deliver the bill to the president before he leaves on a scheduled trip. That is the only reason. Grandstanding. And the president, who promised all kinds of transparency and a new way seems content to continue the sham with more Sunday machinations. If he meant change, then this is something that should change now.

And the Republicans? Right in there with the game. Not one of them has the temerity to actually note that Sunday is not needed here. They are just as vain and just as ridiculous.

I run my own company, and sometimes have to work on Sunday. In fact, this weekend, I will be in Texas for a regular quarterly client meeting. But we have a reason for giving up our weekends for this. The client has a business to run and our meetings require the CEO and COO to be present. This would be impractical for them on a weekday since the meetings tend to run long. But they don't open the factory and I don't open my office. We just meet and plan the next quarter's activities.

But Congress does not have a business to run. Their entire job consists of meetings and votes. So what is their excuse? They have none. Except their own incompetence and false deadlines to enhance the drama.

If you really want to send Congress a message, tell them to take the weekend off. No hurried votes to make a flight schedule. No wasted hours of debate when no votes will be changed. Monday would be just as good.

They should be more worried about what will happen on a Tuesday in November.