Les Miserables in Washington

Movieplexes are alive with crowds wallowing in the newest version of Victor Hugo’s old chestnut, sugar-coating human misery into simpering hope with sentiments like “There is nothing like a dream to create the future” and “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

Meanwhile in DC a road company is still playing out the darkness of the dreary original. John Boehner is the worst Javier in history, passive aggressively stalking Obama’s Jean Valjean over the budgetary loaf of bread while the the rest of us peasants wait around helplessly to see if we all are going to starve.

Whatever happened to the spiritual redemption of “A Christmas Carol?”

The President leaves his family behind in Hawaii to return with only Bo for company, evoking the old saying, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” to arm-wrestle again at the cliff with a lame-duck Congress that threatens to fly off the edge.

When it comes to Washington theatricality, what’s going on is more of a reversion to the old movie serial, “The Perils of Pauline,” each day ending with impending disaster. The House comes back for the final chapter on Monday, but the rest of us may go off before then on our New Year’s Eve toots.

Then again, we might first want to check in on Spielberg’s Lincoln movie to remember when government, however messy, used to work.