In the headline of this post "Congress wraps up session; curtain comes down on 12 years of Republican control," I use the word control loosely. . .the control was like a frat boy's bowels after a three day bender in Tijuana. Twelve years of runaway G.O.P. House and Senate control have wrought, just off the top my my head: missteps, bungling, hetero- and homo- sexual affairs, gropings, harrassment suits, outright thievery, graft, and kickbacks, setbacks for women, gays, and people of color, tax breaks for the rich we could not afford built on top of social service cuts, the endless cross negotiations and crossed palms for porkbarrel legislation slipped into the margins of legitimate legislation, the continuing march of the middle and lower classes toward the sea, the accelerating deterioration of the safety net and infrastructure, and acceding to a war we cannot win, that is breaking the bank and spirit of America, and always, an Administration relentlessly hammering away at tax breaks for the rich, the one thing that is never tabled, an end to what they cynically call the death tax, and playing footsies with Big Business every step of the way.
As always happens at the end of a legislative session, leaders tried to lump popular items like extending expiring tax breaks with other more contentious measures and the relentless prowl for pork. Good riddance to the 109th! Farewell to Rick Santorum, Bill Frist, and the rest of this pack of jackals.
Of course, now we'll have ourselves to kick around and every eye will be on the Democrats. We have two years to begin to undo the excesses of 12 years of GOP and take back The White House. Watch out McCain, Giuliani, and Romney!
---o0o---
