So the Republican won in MA. Sad. I’m really starting to lose faith in the people of this country. If I had a dime for every politician who decried “business as usual” on the campaign trail, I’d have a lot more money to my name than is currently the case. Why aren’t the American people saying, “Yeah. Yeah. Heard that before. What else ya got?”

Everyone’s talking about The Nebraska Health Care Deal. Business as usual, blah, blah, blah. Folks, that is the business of politics. It’s never going to change. If you think congressmen are there to do what’s “right,” think again. They are there to broker influence and votes to get money for themselves and their campaign contributors.* The “good” politicians are actually working for their constituency, you know, like getting them a sweet deal on something that really matters to them. It is the favored tactic of the minority party—regardless of which one it is—to cry foul when “business as usual” doesn’t work in their favor. Just wait until the shoe is on the other foot.

Mitt “I don’t have anything meaningful to say” Romney is crowing about the repudiation of liberal arrogance. Who is he kidding? Anyone remember the Bridge To Nowhere? You going to tell me Coburn’s little stunt and subsequent fall wasn’t hubris? Get real. Eight years of Republican non-leadership got us into the mess we’re in. One of the primary planks of the Republican party is “Leave big business alone to do whatever it feels like and let the market decide.” Well the market has decided and is correcting itself. Everyone happy now?

From the day Obama took office Republicans have done nothing but whine “we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing.” And apparently the American people are buying it. They are freaking out about spending money on health care, but have no problem shoveling cash into the money pit that is the Middle East. We have spent billions in the middle east since 9/11. We are no safer than we ever were. The Middle East is no more stable than it ever was. I don’t know if being shredded by a car bomb is better than torture at the hands of a despot. You’d have to ask an Iraqi about that. Even if we somehow manage to off Bin Laden, do you really think Al-Qaeda will just shrivel up and die? Puhleeze. But we keep shoveling. Isn’t that what’s called a bad investment?

Business as usual indeed.

*I like Jay Leno’s suggestion that congressmen should have to wear their sponsors on their suits just like Nascar drivers.