Dear Old Golden Rule Days
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
They’re back! As has been frequently noted, the first day of a new Congress is very much like the first day of school. Except for the part where it’s on TV and the fate of the largest economy on the planet hangs in the balance.
But when the 112th Congress opened on Wednesday, you definitely had a lot of excited new faces. The House of Representatives is flooded with freshmen, some of whom will embark upon a career of service that will allow them to remain in office for the next 20 years without ever impinging on our consciousness a single time.
Others are pretty clearly gunning to become household names, like Representative Allen West, a Republican from Florida, who began his Congressional career by picking, for his top aide, a radio talk show host known for her colorful gift of gab. (“If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”) Her employment was very brief, very stormy, and filled with questions about whether it was really a good idea to suggest that illegal immigrants be hanged and sent home in a box. Looking back on the episode, West assured a Fox interviewer, “I didn’t learn anything from it.”
The House on Wednesday was all about change, change, change, beginning, of course, with the new speaker. “Be it providence or destiny, a man of uniquely American values has been called,” intoned Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas in a nominating speech for John Boehner. “He has lived the American dream and will protect it for our posterity.”
(More here.)
NYT
They’re back! As has been frequently noted, the first day of a new Congress is very much like the first day of school. Except for the part where it’s on TV and the fate of the largest economy on the planet hangs in the balance.
But when the 112th Congress opened on Wednesday, you definitely had a lot of excited new faces. The House of Representatives is flooded with freshmen, some of whom will embark upon a career of service that will allow them to remain in office for the next 20 years without ever impinging on our consciousness a single time.
Others are pretty clearly gunning to become household names, like Representative Allen West, a Republican from Florida, who began his Congressional career by picking, for his top aide, a radio talk show host known for her colorful gift of gab. (“If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”) Her employment was very brief, very stormy, and filled with questions about whether it was really a good idea to suggest that illegal immigrants be hanged and sent home in a box. Looking back on the episode, West assured a Fox interviewer, “I didn’t learn anything from it.”
The House on Wednesday was all about change, change, change, beginning, of course, with the new speaker. “Be it providence or destiny, a man of uniquely American values has been called,” intoned Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas in a nominating speech for John Boehner. “He has lived the American dream and will protect it for our posterity.”
(More here.)
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