Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A Real Life “House of Cards?” No, Not Really. It Is Worse, The Sequester Shows How Much Our Legislators Care About Doing Their Jobs.


Spoiler alert – don't read if you haven't seen “House of Cards” yet, and get thee to a Netflix account toot sweet! That, and don't read this just yet!



So...



Everyone is seeing this coming. So this is not like the Netflix show “House of Cards.”

Now in a totally hypothetical situation... (SPOILER ALERT) if a Representative like the actual Minority House Whip Steny Hoyer was “associated” with a morally challenged democratic congressperson who ran for Senator of Delaware had a downward spiral secretly encouraged by Hoyer, who then “killed themselves.” Then Mr. Hoyer convinced Diamond Joe Biden to run for Senator in Delaware cause he hated not being in the loop and would rather be a big fish in a smaller pond. (Yeah, right.) If the President THEN asked Mr. Hoyer (after a lot of behind the scenes wrangling) to be VPOTUS therefore the next contender for POTUS). Then it would be just like the show.

In reality, only Vice-President Biden and his people seem to be holding out hope that he will be the next contender for POTUS. I think most pragmatists in DC are only seeing Hillary on the horizon. She will be rested, tanned and ready. I have seen the above bumper stickers around town. Also, when was it last that we had a successful VPOTUS to POTUS occurrence? There was Pres. George H.W. Bush, and we had eight years of W because HW did not win to Clinton. So in other words, the VPOTUS position can be a road to the presidency, but not absolutely. Perhaps there should always be some new blood on both sides? I know this makes the VPOTUS position even less influential than it is now, but shouldn't we just admit it for what it is? Dick Cheney certainly did, and then some.

I still really like this first season of “House of Cards.” I am sure GOP loyalist will say, “See, this show is an example of how the Democrats are soooo evil.” Because the, and I use this word loosely, 'Protagonist' of the story Rep. Francis Underwood (played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey)is a Democrat. I am also sure Democrat loyalists will say, he is molded on Republican politicians. And the beat goes on... I say he is an extreme version (at least I hope he is a very extreme version) of what is already going on when congress does its job. It does not matter which party you belong to, as I have said before, politicians of all stripes, all parties, can and possibly are corrupt. That is why I am an Independent. I had yet another unfortunate Facebook fight with a true believer of the party system a few weeks ago. The most hilarious part about it was that he was not even an American citizen. Ignorance can be bliss. But don't blame someone who does not want to be ignorant or a hypocrite so goes with no party than to go with either which both have too many problems. Sure in his country it could be black and white, but here there are many shades of gray. It is trying to sift through all the gray to get to the truth that is the hard part. Unless you like being lied to, which I have a feeling some of us like it just fine.

So no, our situation is not like the show, it is worse. This week the president and the congress need to make an agreement to prevent the Sequestration (across the board cuts for everything) to happen. My guess is they love blaming each other so much for the problems that this will not get fixed. Why fix it if it ain't broken – for them? Why actually do your job? Never mind this was supposed to be a last resort measure to get them off their butts to do some work. You have got to think that someone out there in DC, like the illustrious Mr. Underwood is trying to solve it and look the hero, but is really backstabbing and making things that much worse. So, it is not absolutely spot on to the script, but I think those writers got the self-serving attitude of our congress just right. We do need to cut the spending, but this way, with a hatchet, will hurt the people more. As I have said before, spending cuts = job losses. Now if they had put their own pay and benefits on the line, perhaps they would have cut a deal with a little more relish. 15.6% percent approval rate indeed. Lets see how that looks in a few months.

Lastly, I have not started it yet. I want a little distance from the American version before I give the British version of “House of Cards” a go. Yep, as usual, one of the best new American series is based upon the British version done in the 1990's. And there below is Francis Urquhart, I think I like that name better than Francis Underwood, although both names are apt. From what I understand, that is his “catchphrase.” And like many a great British show, it is on Netflix, of course. And this catchphrase seems perfect for all the pols response to anything due to the sequestration. Now comes the long wait to see any last minute fixes (probably not), blame game (which seems to be the only game left in DC), and season 2 of “House of Cards.”

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