"Change" was the buzzword last November, as voters radically redesigned the face of the federal government.
And change is exactly what the voters got Ÿ although it's doubtful this is what they had in mind.
Barring a dramatic (and unlikely) 11th-hour agreement, the federal government will shut down today because of a deadlock between President Clinton and Congress over two spending bills, the fifth such shutdown since 1980. And with the Republicans and Democrats behaving like Bud Selig and Donald Fehr during the baseball strike, the motives for this conflict have to be questioned.
Both Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich have taken the impending shutdown as a chance to take political potshots at President Clinton. Both sides seem less concerned with reaching a compromise than with making the other look bad.
While all of the D.C. bigwigs are taking cheap shots at each other, the people who voted them in get the short end of the stick.
Three days after Veteran's Day, new claims for veterans' benefits will be put on hold until the conflict is resolved. The veterans probably don't appreciate the irony. New Social Security claims and most of the Environmental Protection Agency will also close down until things are settled.
Right now, both the White House and Congress are turning their job into a political bargaining chip. What they really need is to remember how to separate their duties from personal battles.