Fools On The Hill

Congress is about to adjourn. I alert you to this because Congress does so little any more you may not have realized it has been in session.

You can count this Congress' accomplishments on your nose, which ranks it on the Wonderful Chart in about the same place as the Congress before it.

Which leads me to a cartoon I saw in The New Yorker. Two dogs are talking and one says to the other, "It's not just that dogs must win, but cats must also lose."

That's our modern Congress: It has become so partisan that neither party will do anything if it means sharing credit with the other - or unless it can be done in a way to discredit the other. So neither side gets anything done. Nonpartisan investigations have become impossible, bipartisan projects nonexistent.

Georgia's former Senator Sam Nunn, who is probably responsible for passing more significant legislation than any lawmaker of modern times, was in town this weekend and it reminded me of something he said when he retired from the Senate four years ago.

"In all my years here," he said, "I never accomplished anything without the help of the other party."

People around here just don't say things like that anymore. And come to think of it, Congress has accomplished virtually nothing since he left.