Showdown, Hoedown, Throw down, Leave town: Your Congress at "Work"

Well I had 75 in the "office pool" so I was close. As you probably know, the Senate just passed the debt deal bill--which should never have been necessary because the raising on the debt limit should never have been tied to any other conversation, including the nation's deficit--74 to 26. At least that mess is settled for the time being.

I appreciated President's words on the White House lawn just moments ago, especially his shout-out to our personal cause in this household. (No need to get into the weeds on that now.) And I do believe he has the ideas at the ready to get the economy turning in the right direction at a much greater pace. I fear he may lack the support from the other end of the Avenue, however.

Speaking of things President has, there's one quality I particularly covet: pragmatism. Of course there's patience, which I cannot begin to fathom the depths of, and have watched with utter amazement since the campaign. And that is no doubt part of the package leading to his pragmatism: his ability to keep calm while all around him is chaos. Yes, as a progressive that sometimes frustrates me, but as a citizen and political observer I find it to be reassuring. There's at least one adult in the room, as it were.

So I will keep a light on in the window of my skepticism by hoping that the "dome dwellers" will heed President's call to action on the growth items which will be vital to our Recovery. And I will hope against all odds that those folks at the other end of the street will finally decide that if the Bush tax cuts as they apply to the rich and the corporations haven't worked in nearly 13 years to create jobs, then they aren't bloody likely to work now. I will bathe myself in the thoughts that perhaps the quiet glow of realism will wash over our 535 friends on the Hill, reminding them that those "who dealt it" need to "smell it" in the form of fair taxation. For you and I, my pals, should not pay a higher tax rate than the Wall Street-thugs who bet for and against US in order to line their own pockets only to have us turn ours inside out, searching our "Hoover Flags" for cash. A chicken in every pot is fine, but what we need in the teapot dome the Capitol has become these days is not chicken but the courage that is the foundation of great statesmanship. And one aspect of that, my friends, is a pragmatic vision.