Drawn by Drew

It's hard to beat the political reporting of Elizabeth Drew,who has been at it over forty years. Here's her take on the week in Washington:

The Implacables are less interested in legislating than in making a statement. To them, the rhetorical meat thrown out at election time to appease the angry masses—which they’ve done their bit to stir up—is invaluable as an organizing and fundraising mechanism. Thus there’s now a circular system in which a large portion of the public, encouraged by opportunists and cynics as well as some true believers to get “mad as hell” votes for people who promise to go to Washington and not compromise. This, in turn, leads to paralysis and further anger on the part of the public that “nothing gets done in Washington.”