Marc,

You weren’t the only one laughing uncontrollably.  President Bush could barely contain his glee during his 15-minute Congressional smack-down.  He is like a little kid with the only water pistol as the park.  “I’ve got a veto and you don’t!”  “I can issue executive orders and you can’t!”  He was daring Congress to try to govern while he is still in office.  Lame-duck or not, this president is still uninterested in the collective will, electoral choices or best interests of the American people,

He didn’t even bother to give us his normal good stuff.  No dog-whistle rhetoric for the Evangelicals.  No barely contained humor as he announces that HIV-AIDS is decimating black communities.  He even pronounced “nuclear” correctly.  Which, by the way, made Ted Kennedy laugh.

I do love watching Congress turned into mindless marionettes, though.  The delayed reaction from the Dems was hilarious.  You could see their little minds working… Hey, am I happy that black kids did better in math or not?...I don’t want to appear to support No Child Left Behind, but it seems like a good idea for kids to be able to count… Ah, OK, Nancy is standing, it is safe. 

The pageantry is funny, but the substance is nauseating.  Once again Bush told the country that we can shop our way out of disaster.  We should use his new kiddie-land pell grants to shop for better schools.  We should us his tax rebates to shop the country out of the mortgage crisis.  We should shop around the private market for health insurance.  No worries America, save yourselves at the mall.  (Insert standing ovation here)  No wonder he kept laughing.

Oh yeah, I am letting that warmonger garbage about Barack slide today…but you can bet I will be coming back to you on that one.

Melissa

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University.