[Preechr]

While I disagree that showing disrespect for show and tell hearings like this is the same thing as showing disrespect for America or the Constitution, I agree that political theater has grown increasingly appalling over the years. I think it started farther back than Nixon, though... I'd once have taken it back to Kennedy, but Television probably just over-turned the rock and exposed the Washington filth to the public visually. Wasn't Buchanan a complete scumbag criminal or something?

Point is, even though you are conveniently not mentioning Clinton, Max, I know you've indicated plainly that he'll never be invited over to your house for dinner. Carter proved and is still proving the blackness of his heart. Corruption and power-grabbing is not just a fundamental aspect of the GOP. It is the goal of ALL government to "amass power." Government itself is unalterably and fundamentally wasteful and always hungry for more, no matter who is running it. We will always need some government, just a little, to accomplish the things we cannot do individually, but only just as much as is absolutely necessary to bear.

The civil purpose of government is to suspend what our Founders called God-Given Rights selectively for the greater good of all. Politicians deserve no more inherent respect than public executioners when they revel in their power, because every official action they take removes someone or some group of rights our Constitution says were supposed to be inalienable. That's power that should only ever be wielded with the utmost prudence and moral judgment.

We are witnessing the Jerry Springer Show acted out on Capitol Hill, and it takes two to strip off their wife-beaters and pull as much hair as possible before Steve can get in there to break it up. At the end of the day, we rely on Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore to tell us how we are supposed to think about it all. That's what Joe Six Pack wants, so that's what he gets.