The 111th Congress may be remembered as when the Republican Senate minority, along with former Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, obstructed the progress of a majority of the American people at a time when we demanded change from the policies of 16 previous years of deterioration in our government’s ability to govern. If we examine the tentative 2010 legislative calendar, with midterm election campaign time and the August recess, the 111th Congress is three quarters over, with roughly 120 legislative days remaining.

There is plenty of work available for the Senate, as the House of Representatives has been passing legislation on most, if not all, of the key initiatives of the Obama administration. Many of those bills await consideration. Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to avoid debate if he doesn’t have enough votes to stop a filibuster. It is more a statement of reality, than of cynicism, that Republican senators can be expected to run out the legislative clock for the 111th Congress.

The trouble with this approach is that the 112th Congress is unlikely to be much better. With all the talk among Republicans about making Barack Obama a one term President, even if the Republicans pick up control of one or both of the legislative chambers in the midterms, we can expect two additional years of obstructionism on Democratic initiatives. One asks, if our country could not change Washington based upon the results of the 2008 election, will it ever be possible to get Washington working for middle class people?

There are those who say that the expectations for the Obama administration were unrealistic. According to some, Barack Obama is a promoter of corporatism, militarism and centrism. Iowa City author and on-line media pundit, Paul Street, said in an article in Z Magazine, “President Obama's carefully calibrated identification with ‘hope and change’ certainly helped him win. Similar identifications helped Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton win the White House in 1976 and 1992, respectively. But so what? The populace's beliefs are largely irrelevant once the latest ‘quadrennial, candidate-centered electoral extravaganza’ is concluded.”

Most progressives understand this perspective. Unfortunately Street’s running commentary, directed towards a devoted group of followers outside the mainstream, can be expected to do little more than inoculate the Democratic Party against excesses, similar to the way the H1N1 vaccine protects against novel strains of influenza. This has been the pattern for other third party movements like the Liberal Republicans, the Greenback Party, the Anti-Monopoly Party or the Pioneer Progressives in their effect on Iowa’s major political parties. Street makes interesting reading. However, he and his followers offer no viable solutions to the problem of senatorial inaction.

Progressives understand the role powerful interests and corporate lobbyists play in Washington. These interests, along with their collusion with legislators, have been part of the government since the very beginning. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were active participants in land speculation when the Old Northwest Territory was opened for settlement. We may not like it, but we understand.

Our strategy in dealing with the corruption in Washington is to work to send good people there to represent our interests. Once elected, we let them govern, making sure they understand our concerns throughout the legislative process. We vote them out if they cease to represent our interests. We are at the vote him out stage with the senior senator from Iowa, who set aside what centrist views he may have held to join with the Republican caucus in obstructing governance and in running out the clock on the 111th Congress.

A modest proposal. There are 196 calendar days left in 2010. Senator Reid should conference briefly with Speaker Pelosi and the president to set priorities for the waning days of the 111th Congress. He should then cancel all of the time off and take up each bill in descending order of importance and follow the legislative process regardless of whether he has the votes. If there is a Republican filibuster, then so be it. Let them filibuster over the weekends, through the August recess, during the run up to the midterm elections and over Thanksgiving and Christmas.  After all, we didn’t send our Senators to Washington to do a Kabuki dance, we sent them to govern and it is about time they finished their work.