Did You Ever Ask Yourself...

why, if all of these guys' ideas are so great, have none of them have been implemented while in the Senate?

I guess it all makes sense when you understand what has to be done. I have, for the first time in my life, gotten a view of the contorted inner workings of our Legislative branch over the past few weeks. It is frankly a wonder that any bills ever get passed by the Congress.

Our Representatives never stop campaigning, and about a third of our Senators are campaigning at any given time. Besides that, every national holiday merits at least a one week recess. Plus there's summer break to consider. Then you have to factor in all of the "very important" hearings about whether some baseball or football player has been using steroids, whether there is enough minority representation in NASCAR, professional sports management, or team ownership, or whether Oprah's new diet is working safely and effectively. When you add all of the partisan sniping that goes on, the required social events to take bribes, er, accept contributions from the Chinese and big oil, I mean, private interests, and otherwise chase tails (theirs or someone else's) they are just swamped.

So please forgive me if I am somewhat cynical when one of these candidates tells me that he or she has the great panacea of our ills all worked out. All three of our potential candidates have had the opportunity to show us what they could do, and I'm afraid it doesn't amount to much. And if they can't find a way to rally a strong majority of the country to their policies and ideas they won't get a thing done. We've already seen under President Bush that the "Bully Pulpit" doesn't have that kind of power against partisan stonewalling.

And if someone is offering free rainbow stew, you might better check the pot.