We thought no one—literally no one on Earth—
had it worse than the 100 members of the United States Senate.
(Yes, 100! Count them again. If you’re only getting 99, you’ve probably forgotten
poor old Mitch McConnell. [
Minor trumpet note.]) But it now seems as if their legislative peers, the 63,000,000 or so representatives in the House, might be the most abject and misery-plagued of all God’s creatures.
The Washington Post reports: “The House of Representatives will not formally adjourn for the year ‘until a credible solution to the fiscal cliff has been found,’ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said Wednesday. The House was originally scheduled to adjourn and formally end the 112th Congress on Dec. 14. But Cantor’s announcement means House lawmakers likely will meet the following week and possibly right up to and beyond Christmas Day.”
Is there a graver tragedy in the entire world? Has there been a crueler fate to befall anyone, ever?
Yes. Barack Obama is now teasing Congress about having to possibly pantomime doing their jobs over fake-Christmas.
Per ABC News: “When a reporter at the White House noted that Boehner is waiting to hear more specifics from him, the president simply smiled and said, ‘Merry Christmas.’” Obama
knows it is not going to be a merry Christmas. It’s going to be a stupid Washington Christmas spent inside the Capitol while members of the Senate crowd the windows from outside, their freezing breath making circular clouds on the icy glass as they watch members of the House kvetch about the national debt. Later, Mitch McConnell, Prometheus-like, will step away from the Capitol building to light a fire in a trash can, but the other Senators would rather catch hypothermia than hang out with him, and so he stands there alone, suffering forever as a metaphorical eagle pecks away at his liver.
Juli Weiner
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