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Dark Santorum.

What’s the German word for schadenfreude?

It’s Schadenfreude. Ya gotta capitalize the S.

msnbc.com:

Polls: Democrats closer to taking Senate control
But polls show no evidence of a national Democratic ‘tidal wave’

Fools. I didn’t say tidal wave, I said AVALANCHE.

The collegial atmosphere of congress past may be a bit of an overstatement. Wasn’t it just before the civil war that a congressman of one political party thrashed a congressman of the other party within a inch of his life with a cane?

Or, it might be historical myopia on the part of the author. This was the situation back in the sixties and seventies, and seems to have degraded sometime in the late eighties.

also most people lie to pollsters – if not dems would’ve taken congress back in the ‘04 elections!

The GOP STOLE the last election!

The polls do not predict turnout well. That is usually calculated by previous election turnout, and if the turnout machinery of the Republicans suddenly got more effective, this would screw up the predictive power of the polls.

That said, I agree that I think they stole the damned elections.

Personally- I’d like to see more of that- might keep the rhetoric down to what the congresscritters were actually willing to stand behind.

Then, this paragraph appeared in page two:

Republican rudeness and bluster make for funny stories, but the phenomenon has serious consequences. The collegial atmosphere that once prevailed helped Congress form a sense of collective identity that it needed to fulfill its constitutional role as a check on the power of the other two branches of government. It also enabled Congress to pass legislation with a wide mandate, legislation that had been negotiated between the leaders of both parties. For this reason Republican and Democratic leaders traditionally maintained cordial relationships with each other — the model being the collegiality between House Speaker Nicholas Longworth and Minority Leader John Nance Garner in the 1920s. The two used to hold daily meetings over drinks and even rode to work together.

The sentence in bold might be a key to understanding why Congress hasn’t been asserting its traditional role of warmaking and legislating. Bush has usurped both. A Congress that saw itself as congressmen first, party members second would, I think, have acted in its own interests as the framers of the Constitution imagined. Instead, the Republicans have enthusiastically supported these power grabs, and the Democrats have, for the most part, meekly demurred.

The rudeness and bluster seems to me to be a function of the fact that Republican members for the most part depend heavily on money from party sources for reelection. So they play to the money suppliers rather than to their collegues on the other isle. It’s more important to get reelected than to be seen to have accomplished anything in Congress. Accomplishments are now a function of the leadership, no longer of the individual Congress-turkey.

Again just a guess on my part, but it fits in with my comment (#78) above.

If true, however, it means that the old collegiality will never return (unless we get public funding of elections. That might work.) Otherwise, individual Congress-turkeys will always remain dependent on Party money for reelection, and that’s the source of the rudeness and bluster. They are playing to the leadership.

With money the source of reelection and so much of it needed the Congress-turkeys will always consider party before the institution or before America. That is the current system.

Glorfindel @ 120

WHAT? The General wants to send more “targets” to focus the violence!?! My God.

I think BobbyG’s taken some liberty with the content of the article to point out what it really means.

Yeah. That was irresistible low-hanging fruit.
_

So if ya send yer son or daughter to Iraq, GW Clusterfuck promises ta take good care of em. They’ll get Halliburton dinners nightly- and plenty of good ol USA rifle ammunition. If they’re good- they’ll get some body armour- and after they’ve been killed- they’ll get sent back to you in one of the nicest damned boxes you’ve ever seen- pure metal- and made in China.

Sounds like Country Joe and the Fish

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s up against a terrible beast
Way o’er yonder in the middle east
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t know jack,
Next stop is Iraq;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go git those terrerists —
Those bad Iraqi’s on the no fly list
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ‘em all to kingdom come.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t know jack,
Next stop is Iraq;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don’t move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that when they drop that shit,
They drop it on the terrerists.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t know jack,
Next stop is Iraq.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers don’t look back,
Pack your kids off to Iraq.
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send ‘em off before it’s too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t know jack,
Next stop is Iraq.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.