Back and laughing

I took a couple of weeks off to catch my breath and take care of some personal and family stuff. The good news is I got that done.

The better news is that the "Health Care Summit" managed to prove my point for me. Not only were the spitballs flying, but they were on TV and in the same room. Some favored highlights:

During one of the few productive exchanges between the 2 sides on cost containment, Senate Minority Leader McConnell pops us to gripe about time being unevenly divided. What makes this a favorite? Well, this is what the top Republican in the US Senate is doing during an informal debate on public policy? Looking at stopwatches? And people want to know why the Senate is broken.

After Lamar Alexander gave an interesting mini-speech on suggestions and issues with the legislation, Nancy Pelosi replied with a soppy letter from a constituent. Then Harry Reid did the same thing. No facts, no response to Alexander. Just weepy letters. And people want to know where the leadership in Congress is. Easy answer. They are looking through weepy letters hoping to find one that deflects from their own incompetence.

Eric Cantor being called out on the unneeded and unused mountain of paper he had an aide lug over a a prop.

Chris Dodd explaining why the insurance companies are also victims.

John McCain railing on after he was agreed with on a rather important and accurate point.

Overall, it was a great - although nonproductive - show. And it makes the point of this blog perfectly. Neither side had any intention of yielding one inch. Both sides came prepared to embarrass the other and nobody in that room gave a rat's tail about the actual people. Best of all, it was on television and is still available at cspan.org.

See, everybody in that room was playing a game. The object is to win points for their side. Not one of them actually engaged in governance or negotiation. All of them claim to represent "the American People." Well, only one person in that room won a national election. One. All of the others represent states or districts - not all of the people as they constantly claim.

Our job come November is to fire the whole lot of them for incompetence and malfeasance. If it is a game they want to play, then I think we should give them plenty of time to play.