By
Sheila Bapat
With a swift swipe of a pen ASUA president Ben Graff vetoed the Senate's decision to keep Fall Ball afloat. But after a few weeks of political drama at the UA, caused by the infamous Fall Ball, things seem to be back to normal.
"I think the politics within ASUA was surprising," Graff said. "It slowed the working environment last week."
But the process still only took weeks. If only the folks up in D.C. worked that fast.
President Clinton, unfortunately, doesn't have merely a ten-seat senate to deal with. He has a 545 member Congress that wants to do nothing but campaign. This is the last autumn of his eight-year stay in the White House, and he's clearly having a ball of his own.
He won't let Congress go home.
Clinton and Congress have yet to declare a cease fire in the battle over next year's budget. Currently two major budget bills stand on the floor. One is a spending bill regarding immigration. The other asks for a $240 billion tax cut over the next ten years.
Clinton is threatening to veto both their asses out of the Beltway.
He is holding Congress hostage until their team comes to an agreement with his team. A few legislators managed to go AWOL over the weekend, undoubtedly to campaign in their home districts. Clinton said, "That's like going to work in the morning, punching the clock and going back home."
What he's also doing is proving a point. The American people's tax money belongs in different places than Congress believes it does. It's just like Graff's disagreement with Fall Ball's number-one proponent, Sen. Matt Bailey.
A fundamental conflict governing bodies face is over where resources ought to be invested. Graff "pulled the plug" on Fall Ball because he felt it was fiscally irresponsible to risk UA student's money.
Similarly, Clinton vetoes bills that make no fiscal sense to him.
Unfortunately, one of the bills, the tax cut, partially makes fiscal sense. It includes a minimum wage increase, a goody that Clinton has tried to push through Congress himself.
Sneaky? Oh yes. This provision is Congress's way of throwing Clinton a bone, and making it harder for him to veto the multi-billion dollar tax cut which is the crux of the spending bill.
The United States Congress is clearly much sneakier than ASUA. No bone-throwing took place in the battle over Fall Ball-just straightforward politics, if there is such a thing. Fall Ball was Bailey's baby. He felt it was worth it and he worked his hardest to see it materialize. Graff didn't think it was legit and vetoed it. Though the ASUA politicking that took place was more intense than past years, it still wasn't D.C.-standard. A bit more innocent, a bit less sneaky.
On the other hand, leaders in Congress have made the veto a harder choice for Clinton to make. The minimum wage provision is a tough call, and it gives their tax cut a better chance of surviving.
Clinton's hostage-taking is sneaky itself. He seems to be enjoying this perk of Chief Executive, a perk he has to acquiesce in January. It annoys the GOP-controlled Congress that just wants to go home and campaign.
Maybe that's part of the plan. Keep the GOP leaders in D.C. so they can't go back to their states and districts for the home stretch before Nov. 7. That gives their Democratic opponents an advantage. Pretty damn sneaky.
Imagine if Graff kept Bailey, and the rest of the Senate tied to their chairs over Thanksgiving break for deliberations over Fall Ball.
Of course, our leaders in ASUA are budding politicians. They have yet to reach D.C. level politicking abilities. They have yet to learn the sneaky tricks that D.C. leaders use so deftly. Everything else is the same: the agendas, the arguments, the vetoes.
Everything - minus the sneaky factor.
