Tip O’Neil hangs in history like the rest of the good ole days. His was a time that marked the end; a time when there was partisanship, but plenty of rolled up sleeves intent on accomplishing business for the good of the nation. I have been told that long days of contentious debate were often punctuated over a couple of beers; opposing parties wishing each other a good night, parting for the day as friends.

The current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has no concept of such behavior. One used to think of that lofty position in terms of the Elder Statesman; someone possessing a sort of wisdom that skillfully combined their own Party affiliation with the job of effectively managing the U.S. House of Representatives.

Today, we are saddled with nothing more than an elder snotty brat, and if that were not enough, we have her equivalent as Majority Leader in the United States Senate. The only thing that distinguishes Harry Reid from being a near carbon copy of Nancy Pelosi, are his ‘Y’ chromosomes.

What would you call a male who happens to be a snotty brat? I might say, perhaps, that Harry Reid is just a sniveling idiot, but that may be unfair to innocent idiots the world over. There is nothing wrong with being an idiot, so long as you are not using your idiocy to destroy one of our nation’s proud institutions.

Americans ought to rethink what we are doing right now. Obviously, we are in sync with our thinking, giving Congress an approval rating of just 12 percent. That means that regardless of our Party affiliations, and our natural tendency to defend one of our own, collectively 88 percent of us believe that the United States Congress is utterly useless.

Maybe we should make President Bush stay in office, and use this election season exclusively for the purpose of throwing bums out, and putting common-sense citizens in their place. After all, President Bush has more than twice the approval rating of Congress, and he could certainly use the extra time to finish his unfinished business.

I know exactly what is wrong with Congress, but attempts to correct the problem have been blocked repeatedly. What is wrong with Congress is that the job has been allowed to become a career instead of a citizen duty.

This great nation can field a steady supply of capable men and women, each filled with the honor of the opportunity to serve. We need to fill the halls of Congress with farmers and lawyers, bankers and hardware store owners, laborers and doctors. These people could go to Washington, do their level best, and then return to live once again beside us.

I read a piece the other day that chastised Senator Biden for his inability to acquire great financial wealth. Maybe it was a little bit tongue-in-cheek; at least I was hoping so. In the perfect world, my Senators and Congressmen will be regular folks.

If we sent regular folks, they would know what regular folks live and die for, and then they would come home and live with the consequences of their actions and decisions. Doesn’t that sound a lot better than living and dying, according to the actions and indecisions of a bunch of snotty brats and sniveling idiots?