We invest a lot of ourselves in our leaders. Money, time, effort... emotions...
Anyway, I'm writing this diary today because this is the kind of shit that shouldn't be written in the weeks and months leading up to elections... But, in our rightful celebration, I want to make sure something is crystal fucking clear. I find it necessary to remind y'all of exactly how scummy politics is.
From Greg Sargent at Talking Points Memo's Election Central:
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who bolted the Democratic party after losing a primary election this year to run as an independent, won a standing ovation at a closed meeting of all Senate Democrats Tuesday.
Lieberman was introduced by Democratic Leader Harry Reid who, according to Lieberman, told his colleagues that, "families go through crisis but we survived and I just want to welcome back Joe Lieberman."
So yeah... Harry Reid is not your friend. Barak Obama isn't your pal. Barbara Boxer isn't your playmate.
I'm saying that these are the people that refused to filibuster bankruptcy reform. Every single fucking one of them voted against Kyoto. (OK, Obama wasn't there, but whatever...)
Politicians are scumbags. Every last one of the bastards. If they believed their mother's dentures would get them another 20 votes, good ol' Moms would be living on a diet of grits and applesauce.
Don't fucking trust them.
Go ahead - celebrate your wins.
But the minute we start our session, start keeping score.
And if we need to primary another jackass like Lieberman in '08, well, now's the time to start organizing.
Update [2006-11-15 1:20:31 by Mike Stark]: It's been pointed out in the comments by a coupla people that my memory of how many bad guys there were on the bankruptcy bill is not particularly good. So that made that sentence a little less illustrative than in could of been if I had used some other examples... In addition, a few think it's not necessarily productive to call politicians "scumbags". I'm less convinced of the merits of that argument. They didn't get to the level they are playing at by being Mr. Smith's...