DOYLC

“ Politics is a contact sport.” –Carl Rove Jack London’s story A Piece of Steak is about Tom King, the old boxer who has to fight just to get money for food. It opens before the fight, with King bemoaning the fact that he can’t buy a piece of steak (hence the name of the story) for energy. Nevertheless he begins winning in the opening rounds against his opponent, the younger, favored Sandel . But as the rounds go on, King’s advantage becomes less and less. As King beats his much younger opponent, the young man goes into the clinch, and King, his body up against the younger Sandel’s, can feel him regaining his strength, his body repairing itself. The Republicans are "IN." Some editorials after the 2014 elections said the Democrats were down for the count. (They weren’t.) It is true currently the Republicans are on top, and, Carl Rove (George Bush’s advisor) can be believed, politics does in some ways resemble a boxing match. The Democrats are battered. (Just ask Harry Reid.) B...

Today at noon in Washington DC the 114 th congress will open with a bang, literally. The session will be called to order with the speaker’s gavel calling for order. There might be bangs  in other places to. The Republicans are in control now. Rather than the Divided Congress of the 113 th’s “do nothing” session, the Republicans now control both houses. There are around ninety congress people who will not be returning to the capitol this year. Voted out or retiring, their places will be taken by newer, younger members. The median age for the new members has dropped in the senate alone by more than fifteen years. The New Class of 2015 is already arriving in the capitol, receiving their offices, hiring their staff, meeting the press, setting up their websites, probably practicing their smiling and trying to sound “all congressional” now that they have finally made it to the top. The races across the country were sometimes close, often times bitter. And now that the “newbies” are in,...