ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

What is going on? Christopher Dodd, Patrick Kennedy---and now Evan Bayh. They're dropping like flies, these Democratic congressional figures.

Evan Bayh summed it up pretty well: he's tired of political partisanship and the lack of legislative progress due to constant infighting and party friction. Bayh was not a wild-eyed liberal or conservative but a centrist, noted for good sense and reasonableness. His will be a loss.

The screams and villifications from far Right and far Left, the polarization of the two parties, the inability to deal with the economic problems of today are spreading like a virus. I am ashamed of the political process of today.

The last time I was this ashamed of the political process was 1954 when we had to deal with the scandalous innuendos and blatant lies of Senator Joe McCarthy. Most of you are too young to remember that shameful period when the Senator from Wisconsin started a Red-baiting furor by announcing at a college commencement in 1950 that he had in his pocket a lost of one hundred Communists in the government. No one ever saw that list, but the shit really hit the fan with congressional investigations, wild accusations and a period of near-hysteria. Fortunately, it ended with his being discredited in a congressional investigation in 1954 when the senator self-imploded on the witness stand. They still use the term "McCarthyism" for reckless and heedless political slander.

At a time when we need Congress to work for the benefit of the American people, pure partisan rancor is ruining the process. How long, oh Rome, must we suffer? People first, politics second---please.