Senate Oligarchy Reminiscent of Old Days

When Lyndon Johnson was made the Senate Democratic Leader in 1953 he had one important task that he knew needed to be done in order to make the senate an effective legislative body: he had to put committee chairmen in their place. For the best part of two centuries, the seniority system in the senate had prevented virtually everybody except the oldest members of the majority party, who were the committee chairmen, from doing anything at all. The chairman ruled his committee in anyway he liked, controlled the flow of bills at any pace, and was the only person the president could go to see on issues of that committee.

50 years later, the most secretive presidential administration in modern history seeks to recreate that system. The only members of the senate who were aware of the president's spy program were Sen. Pat Robertson (R-KS), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the ranking member of that committee.

In the first Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter, it was embarassing, not only for senators, but for the administration as well, that the national legislature was not aware of the domestic spy program that was very possibly infringing upon the rights of millions of Americans.