President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are good friends and determined coalition allies in the Iraq war. But they govern in vastly different political environments. For example, on Wednesday Bush will give a carefully crafted State of the Union Message to Congress. He will follow the tradition of other U.S. commanders in chief of waving, shaking hands and reading a carefully vetted speech from a teleprompter. And like his predecessors, Bush will not answer any questions.
Also on Wednesday, Blair will answer questions in person posed by members of the British parliament–as he does every Wednesday when the chamber is in session.
Maybe its time for Americans to consider adopting this more meaningful system for communication between the executive and legislative branches of government.
One of my favorite programs on C-SPAN is “Prime Minister’s Questions,” which is broadcast weekly from the House of Commons in London. Blair is constitutionally required to weekly answer 30 minutes of questions posed by the MPs, including grouchy back-benchers from the opposition. Canada, Australia and New Zealand also require their prime ministers to appear in the respective parliaments to answer questions posed by legislators on a regular basis.
The concept is brilliant in its simplicity. Subjects raised during “PMQ” vary widely and include key issues of the day, such as the Iraq war, detention of suspected terrorists and so on.
In America, the president rarely appears before the Congress. It is only by virtue of a time-honored tradition that he appears annually to report on the State of the Union. This address has devolved into the ritualistic and ceremonial teleprompter delivery of political pabulum interrupted by the traditional rite of monotonous standing ovations and accented with the now-obligatory introduction of a war hero or courageous firefighter seated in the gallery next to the first lady.
Other than this event, the president appears before Congress only in times of momentous crisis, such as on Sept. 11, 2001, or to declare war.
I’m no Anglophile, but I think we should consider adopting the British system by holding a televised weekly half-hour session in the House where the president would answer questions posed by randomly selected members of Congress. It has the potential to be much more informative than the rare news conferences and the scripted pomp and ceremony of the applause-fest known as the State of the Union message.
We shouldn’t be shy about adopting the British tradition of accountability. After all we are permanently bonded to the Brits by a common history and centuries-old friendship. To be sure, we fought a bloody revolution to throw off the shackles of British oppression, and I do reject the notion that lawyers should wear robes and wigs in our courts–they’re just too hot and pretentious. But “Presidential Questions” before Congress may be an idea worth considering.
