None.
Today, The Washington Post profiled Arkansas’s good-for-nothing Senator Mark Pryor, asking what drives him most about being a U.S. Senator. That answer? Nothing.
What’s the point of being a Senator then?
For starters, Pryor evidently has no idea why he even decided to get into politics. Pryor struggled to name one issue that motivated him into public service, stating, “I don’t really have that one issue, or one cause that has gotten me involved in this [politics].”
In private moments, Mark Pryor likes to ask his fellow senators a personal question: What was the thing that got you started in politics? Some have told him it was the Vietnam War. Others say it was conservative vision of Ronald Reagan. In most cases, these scarred old pols started out as idealists, with a determination to change something very big in American life. Pryor himself can’t come up with an answer like that. “I don’t really have that one issue, or one cause that has gotten me involved in this,” Pryor said. “I just believe in good government, and working hard.”
Later in the profile, Pryor was given the ultimate political softball: if you had the power to make Congress do anything, what would that be? Pryor’s response? He would fix “the behavior of senators.” Pryor noted that he has no particular bill or agenda that he would like seen passed.
In an interview Pryor was asked: what if you suddenly had the power to make Congress do exactly what you want? What’s the first big thing would you want to change?
Pryor said he would use his infinite power to fix…the Senate. The process of governing, in other words. Not its outcomes.
“What I would probably change first is just the behavior of senators,” Pryor said. He would make them show more respect for each other, and more respect for the Senate’s time-honored processes.
“You’re not hearing me single out like, this bill, that bill, some other bill, some agenda I have. I mean, I do have bills I want to work on,” he said. “But, even more important, we have to get the process working again.”
This may sound surprising, but for Pryor it’s par for the course. Throughout his reelection campaign Pryor has refused to take a stance on the issues. His campaign website doesn’t have even an “issues” page.
Maybe if Pryor stood up for the issues that Arkansans care about, he wouldn’t find himself in an uphill reelection battle. Instead, Pryor has been of being a rubber stamp for President Obama and Harry Reid’s liberal agenda.