Obama 2; Congress 0

Notch another victory for the Obama administration. Obviously, Congress has become dysfunctional to the point of irrelevance. The ‘change’ that Obama envisioned from the outset not only pertains to our nation’s fiscal health and social cohesion, it also involves our system of governance: elections; our two-party system, the Supreme Court, checks and balances; and all the rest. Clearly, Democrats have been cajoled into rubberstamping the president’s market basket, helping to push through deeply unpopular legislation - some say illegally - thus shattering the nexus between the voter and themselves. Washington is now seen as rogue. Voter view themselves as victims without recourse to traditional means of having a say in how their nation is run. As such Democrats are expected to reap the wrath of the electorate in November.

Republicans fare no better. They were content to stand by and watch Democrats literally hang themselves. Republicans are now eagerly awaiting their 15 minutes of fame in the shadow of the gallows, hoping (as JB suggests) to divide the spoils of majority among themselves. The problem is that there are no longer any spoils to divide. The nation is bankrupt. Republicans have stood by, licking their chops; and watched as America was being depleted of its essence. It now no longer matters who wins in November. A huge Republican landslide can only serve to animate talk TV and radio hosts who will find, as time goes by, that Obama will get his way no matter what; that the moment to actually have done something constructive has long since passed.

In a WSJ opinion piece today, L. Gordon Crovitz writes about Iran’s Ahmadinejad. He might just as well have been writing about Barack Hussein Obama. Crovitz begins: “There have been rogue leaders on the world stage before. In cases such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao, people were shocked to learn they actually meant what they said.“

Crovitz asks the question: “A leader who mocks all questions (and) is thumbing his nose at (the) core beliefs of our era, including that information wants to flow freely, and that no one is above this law of increasing openness - What to do with (such) an information pariah?”

Crovitz concludes: “In today’s world, a leader who consistently mocks, lies, (blame-shifts) and threatens deserves to be set apart. We no longer have the excuse of misunderstanding. We will (only) have ourselves to blame if (he)… achieves his ambition.”

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