Maybe you're not surprised that Congress is ducking a debate on the war against ISIS for what appears to be purely political reasons, and at this point, maybe you're not even taken aback. Jon Stewart wants you to be taken aback. On Monday night's Daily Show, he unfavorably compared Congress to Britain's Parliament, which was called back into session by Prime Minister David Cameron last week to have a vigorous debate over whether the UK should join America's ISIS bombing campaign.
Stewart doesn't go into the differences between Britain's parliamentary system and America's separately elected legislative and executive branches — this is a comedy TV show, after all, not a seminar on comparative politics — but his point largely stands: America's "legislators refuse to debate publicly one of the most crucial issues of our time, for fear that we will hear them." He singles out House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who warns about President Obama's handling of the imminent threat of ISIS "barbarians" but won't call the House back to tackle that threat.
Congress' excuse is that Obama didn't ask them to debate the ISIS battle — Stewart isn't buying it (as he mockingly notes in his Lindsey Graham voice, for some reason, before breaking out a pink magic wand). And the only person in Congress willing to explain the real, brazenly political motives is Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who lost a GOP primary and won't be returning to Congress next year. "You know what, the rest of you motherf—kers either get back to Washington and debate and vote on this thing, or maybe it's time to tell 'mom' we're coming home," Stewart concluded, pointing to a photo of Queen Elizabeth II.
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(Easter egg: The bearded "writer" listening to CNN's Don Lemon in Stewart's video montage is The Week's Michael Brendan Dougherty.)
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