Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Hamas and Blagojevich

The headlines about Gaza and the US Senate keep recalling the folk wisdom about never getting into pissing contests with skunks, as Hamas and Rod Bagojevich wreak havoc with efforts of those who oppose them to act rationally.

In Gaza, innocent people keep dying at their hands as Israelis solemnly tell us they are only doing what they have to do and, in Washington, American legislators tie themselves into legal knots to keep an implacable crook from naming a new member to their body.

In between are women and children on both sides of the border in the Middle East and Americans who urgently need the president and Congress they have just elected to get moving to save their economy.

Illinois' governor has lobbed Roland Burris at the US Senate with the same intention as Hamas' rockets--to pressure and intimidate their opposition into making concessions--and the responses are, perhaps unavoidably, ugly.

As Barack Obama prepares to move into the White House promising to bring people together in civilized responses to problem-solving, we keep being reminded that the world doesn't usually work that way.

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