Recalling his favorite Reagan observation that America is a nation that has a government, not a government that has a nation, columnist Mark Steyn applies a marvelously descriptive term for the current state of the U.S. government as reflected in the outrage of House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other GOP congressional leaders over the FBI search of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson?s official office. Steyn?s term is “Incumbistan.” We suggest the Incumbistan Complex applies throughout the federal government.
Jefferson, according to the FBI, accepted $100,000 in cash from a government informer, then neatly wrapped it in tinfoil and stashed it in his freezer at home. When FBI agents obtained a search warrant from a federal judge and entered Jefferson?s congressional office, Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other GOP leaders cried foul, citing the Constitution?s separation of powers and privileges and immunities clauses.
In fact, nothing in the former clause puts any of the three branches beyond the law, while the latter clause applies only to Members? utterances on the floor of Congress during official debate. About all that Hastert, Frist and company achieved was to reinforce in the public mind the view that the GOP majority has become as isolated and arrogant since assuming power in 1995 as was the Democrat majority the Republicans replaced.
As compelling an image a congressman?s freezer stuffed full of cash may be, it is but one of many illustrations of the increasingly pervasive and bipartisan Incumbistan Complex in the nation?s capital. Politicians afflicted with the Incumbistan Complex look and talk as if they are faithfully responding to the popular will, but their votes typically advance or protect their own campaign and incumbency objectives, as well as those of the permanent bureaucracies and the special interests that depend upon the flow of tax dollars.
Consider the Senate?s just-passed “comprehensive immigration reform” bill. President Bush and his chief allies on the issue, like Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., talked about protecting the border, but the Senate bill offers precious little genuine substance beyond the symbolic gesture of temporarily stationing 6,000 National Guard troops in support positions behind the Border Patrol.
The Incumbistan Complex is seen even more starkly in the inevitable creation of a massively expanded federal bureaucracy to process the millions of new citizenships and temporary-worker credentials mandated by the Senate bill. It?s the perfect solution: The federal bureaucracy gets more jobs, bigger budgets and increased power, while the Republicans? corporate buddies are assured of a flow of cheap labor and the Democrats? ethnic identity advocacy communities reap a bonanza of consulting contracts, program grants and new revolving doors into government employment opportunities.
Meanwhile, out there in the real world beyond the Beltway, as frustration grows and public discontent with both sides is cemented by events, people in both major political parties are realizing that the Internet and associated technologies are birthing the tools required to end the Incumbistan Complex. There will come a tipping point for this budding movement ? maybe much sooner than anybody in Washington thinks.
