As he was heading out the door, embarking on a new career in radio, Rogers of Brighton authored an Op-Ed for Politico that bluntly repudiated his former colleagues, Republicans and Democrats.
"The level of pettiness and small-minded meanness in political discourse is disheartening at best. It works against our national interests, at its worst. It is hard to solve big issues with small politics. America is facing huge challenges. So is America’s political discourse," he wrote.
Those words might inspire a cringe from the many right-wing Michigan Republicans who had hoped Rogers would run for the Senate seat opened up by the retirement of Carl Levin. Those words also might chagrin the liberals who had gathered up their hopes biennially to defeat Rogers by portraying him as a close-minded ultraconservative. In this guest column, he sounds like a closet centrist, offering this advice: "Consensus may not be possible, but constructive cooperation is." And he rightfully takes aim at all the hyperventilating and hyper-partisan forms of media that obsesses Washington.
"The 24-hour news cycle has become a 24-second news cycle," the former lawmaker noted. "A member used to hope for a 15-second clip in a news story. Now it’s 140 characters in a tweet. And if you want someone to read it, best be clever. Newsworthiness comes second. The first one out there on a topic wins, and accuracy is an afterthought, if a thought at all. Nothing has made me appreciate real journalists more than (antagonistic) anonymous bloggers and partisan tweets."
Stewart, who has taken shots repeatedly at the 24-hour cable channels and at partisan social media, would certainly agree with Rogers on all these points.
The other day, the Comedy Central star, in true populist form, noted that, after missing several weeks on the job, members of Congress returned on a Tuesday at noon -- not exactly the schedule kept by their working constituents.
Stewart, in his own irreverent way, then unloaded on Capitol Hill by pointing out two simple statistics: Congress has a 14 percent approval rating but 95 percent of the members seeking another term were re-elected. Just 14 percent like the job these people are doing, but nearly all are back on the job.
“[F]ourteen percent approval to 95 percent incumbency is the same disapproval to recurrence ratio currently enjoyed by the Herpes virus,” Stewart said.
Funny? Yes. Language that Rogers would use? Certainly not.
But Rogers' broader point fits here nicely. Just as outlandish tweets and Facebook messages should not drive the political conversation, neither should TV comedy programs such as Stewart's "The Daily Show," which is relied upon by a disconcerting number of Americans for their news.
All this political clamor, Rogers wrote in his Op-Ed, "takes away from the time a member needs to spend getting smart on issues that matter. The only way to do that is read, question and dive deep into all of the often unsexy issues of legislating. I’ve gotten into trouble with my fellow conservatives for saying this—after all, our party believes, often justifiably, that Washington is usually the problem—but I do think elected officials need to devote more time here on Capitol Hill engaging in governance. It won’t get you on the 11 o’clock news, but it will make for a better-functioning legislature.
Those are the nuts-and-bolts that lack the entertainment value or the partisan punch to ever make an appearance on Twitter or Facebook or TV or talk-radio. But who decided that politics and policy must be entertaining?
I think the folks over at the Independent Voters Network said it best when they described the gridlock that results when two sides square off: "Partisanship is a disease and unfortunately the nation cannot just take a shot of penicillin and everything will be alright."
Rogers, a former FBI agent, tells the story of how in 2011 he, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and the panel's ranking member, Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, quietly reached agreement on an intelligence budget while working in a room reserved for classified information. It marked the first intelligence budget agreement in six years.
Rogers revealed that, as the two lawmakers reached across the table to shake hands on the pact, the room shook. At that moment, Washington was hit by a rare earthquake.
That's the kind of material that Stewart could have run rampant with for several minutes of his program.
Yet, I was surprised that he didn't take a big bite when Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday offered Stewart and his comedic colleagues a jokefest on a platter.
In an awkward, farcical moment just prior to the House swearing-in ceremony, Minority Leader Pelosi urged her colleagues to give their constituents a round of applause for voting them into office.
Her audience complied, though such a suggestion was ridiculous given Congress' ingrained ability to fail -- or to fail to try -- when addressing big problems at home and abroad.
Hey, everybody, let's have a round of applause for Herpes.
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