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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Venting About Congress

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I fear I have been naive, for I have thought that the behaviors of our Congress (specifically, the Republicans therein) had hit rock bottom, that the limit of asshattery has been reached. Not so! Today’s Senate shenanigans over Chuck Hagel’s nomination may have been the straw that broke this weary old camel’s back. Seeking relief in humor, I have compiled a brief list of unflattering remarks about our legislative branch by famous people. Please add as you see fit.

Note: I don’t have strong feelings about Hagel one way or the other. I do have strong feelings about dysfunctionality.

Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time. Even when the problems it ignores build up to crises and erupt in strikes, riots, and demonstrations, it has not moved. Its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission. ~ Shirley Chisholm

Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens-and then everybody disagrees. ~ Boris Marshalov

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ~ Will Rogers

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress. ~ John Adams, second US president

We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex-but Congress can. ~ Cullen Hightower

Congress consists of one third, more or less, scoundrels; two thirds, more or less, idiots; and three thirds, more or less, poltroons. ~ H. L. Mencken

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. ~ Frank Zappa

From Charlie Wilson’s War

Joanne Herring: “Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nothing?”

Charlie Wilson: “Well, tradition mostly.”

From Mark Twain Tonight!

I was very particular about the kind of job I wanted. I didn’t want to work. So I went over to the Congress, that Grand Old Benevolent National Asylum for the Helpless, and I reported on the inmates there.

A jay hasn’t got any more principle than a Congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise. ~ Mark Twain

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. ~ Mark Twain  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 13 Comments

13 comments

  1. ursoklevar

    Here she is in action, asking bank regulators when they last took a Wall Street bank to trial. She cuts ’em off when they try to bullshit her and evade the question, and she points out that ordinary citizens are being screwed while the banks rake in the money!

  2. jlms qkw

    the asshattery has no lower bound.  local news here reporting orrin hatch voting “present” and saying how he disliked the shenanigans.  mai hed asploded in irony.  

  3. pittiepat

    when the Senate returns in a week or so.  In other words, they are playing “silly buggers” with SoD’s nomination just because they can.  Guess they hope they can turn up some dirt between now and then that will scuttle him completely.  They just forget that what goes around comes around and their obstruction will come back to back them on the ass.  

  4. cassandracarolina

    Many Americans deserve a refund for sending someone to Congress whose sole activitiy has been  “NO!!!!” and doing absolutely nothing.

    Meanwhile plenty of Americans worked hard and gave their all and got laid off by the greedy corporations that helped fund these Congressional parasites.  

  5. dear occupant

    i’d hoped to learn a few things during this confirmation process that might settle some questions of my own, silly me. another opportunity squandered for cooperation, another opportunity taken to create a false crisis and waste valuable time, meanwhile Panetta has to stay on until this is over.

    what i think about the Congress cannot be printed here, ursoklevar.

  7. princesspat

    The Republican Party is a presidential election away from extinction. If it can’t win the 2016 contest, and unless it has bolstered its congressional presence beyond the benefits of gerrymandered redistricting-which is to say not only retaking the Senate but polling more votes than the opposition nationally-the party will die.

    ~snip~

    The Republican Party will vanish not because of what its says but because of what it believes, not because of how it presents itself but because of who it is when it thinks no one is looking.

    Grand Old Jurassic Party

    This NYT analysis is long but well worth the read, as despite thinking Republican’s efforts the party seems incapable of learning or changing.

    …..Jacobson and Spencer have taken up evangelizing – and the sermon, delivered day after day to fellow conservatives in the form of a 61-point presentation, is a pitiless we-told-you-so elucidation of the ways in which Democrats have overwhelmed Republicans with their technological superiority

    Can the Republicans Be Saved From Obsolescence?

    And Ted Cruz, a Republican freshman in the Senate who has been front and center in his party’s effort to squash Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense, has a problem. He’s an ornery, swaggering piece of work. Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are.

    The G.O.P.’s Nasty Newcomer

    Reading the three articles together gives me a better understanding of the reality of our present congress, and a determination to do my small part to change it.  

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