In an age where millions of people get off on conveying their thoughts in 140 characters (not words) or less, the art of crafting a one-word description of anything seems like a next logical step.
So if, after witnessing the U.S. Senate during the month of December, you were asked to describe that legislative chamber in one word, what would it be?
(Yes, I know, but no #@$&*($%*%*# words are allowed.)
For myself, I know what words would not be among those I would use to describe the Senate. Here are a few of them: admirable, competent, inspirational, multi-tasking.
Some of the ones that might make my list: unbecoming, ridiculous, one-dimensional.
I think you would have to agree—no matter where you stand (perch?) on the political spectrum—that it was an undignified spectacle at best. Is this how we as a country really want our Senate and the 100 potentates that grace it with their presence to operate?
The most outrageous thing about the Senate is, of course, that 60-vote rule that came out of who knows where and lives on as a hallowed tradition. I'm not going to belabor the point that nowhere in the Constitution–which, by the way, these Senators have sworn to uphold–does it say anything about having to garner 60 votes in order to move anything ahead.
But the outrageousness of the 60-vote rule became so clear as one or two senators were able to effectively dictate what large sections of the health care reform package would or wouldn't contain.
You may well have appreciated Sen. Joe Lieberman's threats this time around because they happened to play into what you wanted or didn't want. But you can rest assured that the time will come when another senator with delusions of grandeur takes a Lieberman-type position on something of vital interest to you. Then we'll see how much cheering you do.
