DON'T GO BREAKIN' MY HEART

Dear Readers,
Politics generally bum me out, but I'm really bummed over all the hoo-ha that's gone on in Warshington this week.I never could figure out the Tom Daschle thing, as even goldfish know that he's a lobbyist in all but name, and President Obama said he wasn't going to hire a bunch of lobbyists for key jobs. I'm kind of glad that Daschle got busted for non-payment of taxes, as it saves a lot of long-term grief for everybody, but it's disturbing how many tax deadbeats have been tapped to be in the new administration.
Timothy Geithner 'forgot' to pay his taxes, too, a rather disturbing oversight for the guy who's our new Treasury Secretary, but Obama just had to have him, as he's so indispensable to any hope for economic recovery. Let me be the 9 millionth guy to remind everyone of Charles DeGaulle's famous comment that "the graveyards are full of indispensable people" (he said 'l'hommes', but...), a fact that needs repeating, especially in a time when ordinary people know in their bones that there's a double standard for the rich and powerful. The Republicans could have filibustered Geithner's nomination to death, but they gave Obama a mulligan on that one, the only one he's ever likely to get from them. But allowing another indispensable to get away with cheating was too much, and I reluctantly must agree with the GOP for once.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in congress have been larding the Economic Stimulus Pill with pork, which not only imperils a worthwhile attempt to help the economy, but adds a distinct, non-kosher whiff to a bill that would look better if there was some bi-partisanness to it. I guess that's to be expected, as that's what congress always does to legislation. But what surprises me is that Obama apparently didn't see this coming. Maybe it's because he's been away from Warshington for two solid years, campaigning, and forgot what the place is actually like. He may have thought that he had at least 58 Democratic friends in Congress, who would make sure there was enough in the bill for at least some bipartisan support, but he forgets that every morning, 100 senators look in the bathroom mirror while brushing their teeth and see a potential President. And most of them probably think they deserve it more than some upstart from Illinois who was only there for a couple of years before he decided to go for it.
Look, I'm like most people, I don't really understand what goes on in the game of big-time politics, but I know there are no Jimmy Stewart characters ('Mr. Smith Goes To Warshington') to stand up for the absolute right, and those who are there, while not actually crooked, are at least aware that politics is a not-so-subtle game of power and promise. I'm sorry, Mr. President, but change hasn't come, and you haven't helped matters by nominating people who obviously think that the rules don't apply to them, while allowing the Senatorial satraps to stink the place out with business-as-usual.
So, my amateur advice to the President is; take the moral high ground - it's yours, as no one else in the nation's Capitol seems to want it, and pleeeeeeeze don't go to some @#$%*&ing school to read stories to first-graders (ala 'W' on 9/11 and Katrina) while Rome burns. After Wall Street raped and pillaged the US taxpayers and Congress acts like a bunch of drunken sailors, we desperately need someone to take charge. I know you can do it, man, 'cause you're the only guy we've ever elected who knows how to work a Blackberry.
@#$%% tea today, cause I want all this to work out. Come on, people!