With Lady Margaret Thatcher’s recent passing, tributes and praise for her leadership are flowing freely from former allies and adversaries alike. This is entirely fitting as she was not only the first and only female Prime Minister of the U.K., but she reclaimed a declining economy and helped defeat communism. Lady Thatcher was an effective leader, a principled and skilled politician, and she strengthened the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States. Lady Thatcher was one of the world’s most influential and greatest post-World War II leaders.
A resolution honoring Lady Thatcher has been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. A resolution was also supposed to pass in the Senate earlier this week. However, well placed sources on Capitol Hill report that Senate Democrats have placed a hold on the resolution honoring Lady Thatcher, according to Katherine Rosario at HeritageAction.com.
Refusing to honor Lady Thatcher is petty and reveals a shocking small-mindedness. The truth is even delaying the passage of such an honorary resolution at the passing of an historical leader and strong ally is shameful. If Democratic Senators cannot overlook modest ideological differences after the death of a great leader, then they can never hope to come together and tackle the difficult issues of the day. This illustrates why Washington is broken. Petty, bitter partisanship that allows a liberal Senator to block an honorary resolution shortly after the death of a leader who was an avid ally of the United States is the same level of small-mindedness that prevents the Senate from passing a budget or otherwise do the things one might expect of a group of grown ups elected to serve the American people.
The House passed its honorary resolution pursuant to the same traditional bereavement procedures that have been in place since before the 1960s. This is not supposed to be a partisan issue. Regardless of whether it is a Bush or a Clinton or a Carter, when a former president passes, America should take note without regard to petty partisan politics. The traditional bereavement procedures were designed to create a standardized, non-partisan means of honoring and remembering the service of past leaders.
Sadly, this is just one more damning piece of evidence that the U.S. Senate, led by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has become a broken and dysfunctional body.