I just came across this gem of a headline from the AP:
Stevens gives last Senate Speech as Staffers Weep
In one brief moment, I experienced Stevens Schadenfreude, and saw exactly what was wrong with the US Senate, and why we need to apply enormous, steady pressure on Reid and his minions as the change we were seeking gets underway.
First, the Schadenfreude:
Family members and aides wept openly in the gallery as Stevens, who turned 85 this week, spoke of having "no rearview mirror" and looking forward to a time when he might be vindicated.
I've had many satisfying, smug moments in my lifetime pursuit of being a political junkie, but reading that first sentence was one of the best "fixes" I've ever had.
To read that Bridge to Nowhere's family and aides were weeping—over a dishonorable, corrupt, and evil man's demise—is not only pathetic, but very curious. Was it the loyalty? The nostalgia? The happy memories?
Or was it that all of them profited immensely from Ted's graft and greed over the years, and the end of the Senators' gravy train means they'll have to fend for themselves, unprotected by Papa, from here on in?
My money's on the money.
Second, the Senate:
Perhaps a quarter of the Senate filed into the chamber to hear the speech, with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell turning his chair all the way around to face Stevens. Those gathered in the galleries and on the Senate floor gave the outgoing senator a standing ovation, a violation of Senate custom. But no one objected.
"More than anyone else, you have taught me the meaning of representing my state," said another retiring senior senator, Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
"That's right, Ted!" barked yet another long-timer, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.
With all due respect to Sens. McConnell, Domenici, and Byrd, if learning to "represent your state" means bringing home the pork illegally, while lining your own pockets with taxpayers' money, then call me relieved that class is cloooosed!
The Senate is too damn chummy, "respectful," clubby, "principled"...and full of shitweasels. The same rabble-rousing, revolutionary, and earth-shattering change we just witnessed in prez politics on Nov. 4th needs to come to the Senate, and it needs to start with Reid.
And if it cannot start with Reid, then we need to find a Senate leader who can get the job done.