And, here we all (read: me) thought Obama was only in the Senate on Wednesday for a celebratory victory lap and a quick [righteous] smackdown of Joe Lieberman in front of his peers.
Hell, I have to admit; Obama’s a better man than I am. If I had just become the presumptive Democratic Nominee for POTUS the night before, I sure the hell wouldn't have been at work. I’d have been kickin’ back at home for a couple days with my wife and kids and a few bros; a big ol' Budweiser truck parked outside my house.
But, not Barack Obama
Fresh off the plane on Wednesday, the junior senator from the great state of Illinois sprinted to the U.S. Senate and introduced brand new legislation to further expand public access to information about government spending.
Here's how Obama described the bill on his website.
The Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (pdf) is the culmination of a bipartisan effort by Senator Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) and Senator John McCain co-sponsored the bill.
The Secrecy News website has the story:
The new bill would build upon and improve previous efforts by Senators Obama and Coburn to provide public access to federal grant and contract information through the USASpending.gov web site. Among other things, it would require copies of each federal contract and details of the bidding process to be published online.
The provisions of the bill were outlined in a joint press release on June 3.
"People from every State in this great Nation sent us to Congress to defend their rights and stand up for their interests," Sen. Obama said in a prepared floor statement. "To do that we have to tear down the barriers that separate citizens from the democratic process and to shine a brighter light on the inner workings of Washington. This bill helps to shine that light."
While most government agencies have cooperated with the contracting transparency requirements that were adopted in 2006, some intelligence agencies have dragged their heels in opposition. The Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which used to disclose their unclassified contracts, actually withheld such information from the USASpending.gov database in 2007 and 2008.
BTW, Obama really put a hurtin' on John McCain yesterday. I didn't think about it at the time, but by banning all lobbyist and PAC money for the GE, he put the onus on McCain to do the same thing, especially when he's already under pressure by surrounding himself with lobbyists. But McCain can't afford to do that.
Brilliant tactic. It'll be interesting to see how ol' McSame reacts.
But, I digress.
Overall, I'd say Barack Obama got more done on Thursday than most of our elected representatives do in a month.
Let's review, shall we... (not necessarily in order)
• scheduled reconciliation meeting with former opponent
• banned all Washington lobbyist and PAC money from the Democratic Party
• retained the invaluable services of [master strategist and all around good guy] Howard Dean as DNC Chairman
• introduced federal transparency and open government legislation in the U.S. Senate
• read Republican Senator Joe Lieberman the riot act on the Senate floor
Way to go, Mr. Obama. A great day indeed!
(Damn, I can't get that U2 song, "It's a Beautiful Day" out of my head now. LOL)
Peace