Give Me My Fricking Country Back!

The sight of the congressional Democrats lying around in puddles of their own blood sorry me-ing themselves is too much for even this hardened veteran of covering political trench warfare. This is not why we elected Barack Obama and this is not why we gave him healthy majorities in both Senate and House.

Nancy Pelosi's apparent capitulation on a deeply flawed but vitally necessary health-care reform bill, coming as it does on the day that Supreme Court Inc., with CEO John Roberts in the van, declared it is okey-dokey for corporations and other monied interests to buy the legislators they want is simply too much. And Obama is acting perceptive, as usual, but also powerless.

Congress is broken. The Supreme Court is broken. For all I know the president may be broken. And as someone who bleeds red, white and blue for his country I too am feeling broken and all the more so with the clarity that a good night's sleep has brought me.

* * * * *

Tea Partiers should be outraged -- just outraged -- over the Supreme Court ruling, but there has been nary a peep from them opposing the most godawful decision of my lifetime. This should tell you all you need to know about these cocked-hat populists.

Meanwhile, some Tea Partiers are hailing the decision because . . . get this, it protects free speech. I'm with Keith Olbermann in calling this gang "poor, dumb, manipulated bastards."

Cartoons (from top) by Mike Luckovitch, Don Wright,
Tom Toles and Tony Auth