Is the irony of the Iraq situation completely lost on the U.S. Congress and the president? For months they've been whining about the incompetence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi government, while the U.S. Congress has degenerated into a bickering gaggle of petty do-nothings whose chief goals is to make sure the other party doesn't get credit for anything good and takes the blame for everything bad.

They yam about Shi'ites and Sunnis being unable to get along in Iraq, but Democrats and Republicans here refuse to work together on the crucial issues of health care and the solvency of Social Security - or anything else, for that matter. Our government is 231 years old, for gosh sakes, and it's more screwed up than Iraq's new one is!

As the approval rating for Congress goes down, its level of ineptness goes up. The only things it's efficient at is taking corporate bribes and voting themselves pay raises. When did it become un-American to get something done?

And once again, we've entered The Campaign of The Empty Suits (and one empty pants suit). In January 2009 we'll all bop ourselves in the head and realize we've been bamboozled once again. Talk about buyer's remorse. Is anyone else as sick of this idiocy as I am? We've got a year to face the truth that every incumbent and party hack is part of the problem.

The only way to get Congress to change is to change who's in Congress. Could we possibly do any worse?

Jack Zavada

Streator

Do you agree?