"Do-nothing Congress" in reality accomplishes much for GOP agenda

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress seems to be struggling lately to carry out its most basic mission: passing legislation.

A proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage failed. Long-debated immigration legislation has reached an impasse. The House passed a line-item veto and estate-tax measures that face significant hurdles in the Senate, while the Senate devoted a week to impassioned debates about Iraq that resulted only in two failed Democratic resolutions.

Democratic critics are reviving Harry Truman's taunt about a "do-nothing" Congress. But many Republicans say they are where they want to be as they head into November elections, which will determine whether they retain House and Senate majorities.

In every instance, Republican leaders pushed legislation known to have little or no chance of enactment but also known to appeal to conservative voters, whose turnout is crucial to the party's success.

Tuesday, a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died one vote short of the support needed to send it to the states for ratification.

Many Democrats consider the amendment the king of cynical, election-oriented bills. But the flag amendment is red meat for conservative audiences, and it's no surprise Republicans rolled it out with eight legislative weeks left in the election year.

"There's no question that they are trotting out their hardy perennials," said Matt Bennett, a former Democratic staff member who is vice president of Third Way, a centrist think tank. "They're done purely for political gamesmanship."

When Democrats controlled the House and Senate, they, too, were known to bring up doomed bills for campaign purposes. But some think Republicans perfected the strategy in 2004 by championing an anti-gay-marriage amendment certain to fail but only after long and loud debates.

President Bush and many other Republicans campaigned vigorously on the issue, and some analysts said it played a notable role in the defeat of presidential nominee John Kerry and other Democrats.

This month, Senate Republicans forced another vote on the proposal to ban same-sex marriage, and it again fell far short of the needed votes.

In light of the vote, plus the public's deep concern about the Iraqi war, some Democrats think that thinly veiled use of the House and Senate floors to fire up voters may prove less effective this fall, or perhaps backfire.

"The gay-marriage political ploy was a master stroke in 2004, but it is not working this year," said Bennett, who closely follows polls and focus groups. Voters want serious debates on serious issues, he said, not "flag burning and this other nonsense."

In public, Republicans reject the charges of cynicism. "The notion that lowering taxes on American families, reducing government waste and reining in activist judges aren't legitimate issues that merit debate is absurd," said Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

Privately, however, some Republicans acknowledge certain votes are taken to create good campaign issues, and they accuse Democrats of doing the same. They point, for example, to the Democrats' annual insistence on a vote to increase the minimum wage, which has failed for nine straight years. In response to last week's failure, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the party's leader, said Tuesday that Democrats would "do everything within our power to stop a congressional pay raise from going through this year, and we're going to tie it to minimum wage."

Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said his boss tries hard to pass meaningful legislation. He cited Hastert's role in recently passing a major spending bill for the war and hurricane relief and a tax-cut extension.

Yet the House and Senate remain far apart on immigration, one of the most important pieces of legislation this year, and Democrats blame Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and the president for doing little to resolve the differences.

Some Democrats and outside interest groups think House and Senate Republicans have decided it is best to enter the fall elections defending their chambers' approaches, even if it means a Republican-controlled Congress and the White House will have failed to act on what many view as the nation's most pressing domestic issue.

Perhaps the biggest gamble congressional Republicans took this year is their overwhelming support for Bush's Iraq policies, rejecting Democratic calls to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal. Despite the issue's weightiness and somber overtones, no one denied lawmakers in both parties were eyeing the November elections as they debated and voted.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.