Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Forget the 'Downward Spiral of Politicization," Let's Just Excoriate the Bad Taste

Professor Solum, over at this Legal Theory Blog, makes credible points on how useless this whole Senatorial filibuster is. Still, however pointless it may be, it's keeping at least 50 men employed and off the streets, so who really cares? I mean, you have to keep those senators busy, else they might get up to all sorts of mischief: drinking, smoking, and raising everyone's capital gains taxes.

Prof. Solum's post links to a number of people more qualified than I am to point out how dumb this is, some of them discussing it in terms of game theory and 'chicken.'. But they all missed the worst part of the story, namely this:

Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, held a sign he displayed for television cameras and passing Republican senators as they entered the chamber: "I'll be home watching The Bachelor.' "

In other words, one of the leading lights of the Democratic Party, given what is in essence a free night off while the Republicans hold a glorified slumber party, feels that the best use of his time is to watch a truly lousy sequel of a reality TV show? And he brags about it?

As soon as this filibuster is over, let's vote for Senators to get mandatory free cable TV. Normally I'm not for government intervention in the markets, but it's depressing that a lack of cultural opportunities means that one of the lords of our particular realm is announcing to the world that our leaders are just as crass as they're reputed to be.

Update: Suggestion for an alternate sign: "I'll be home watching The Reagans." OK, it probably wouldn't be true (though he's a powerful enough man to score an advance tape, I think), but it would have some degree of wit.

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Giving The Devil His Due

Comments

I truly doubt Harkin was watching The Bachelor. More likely, he was just pandering to the hoi polloi like the Senate Republicans think they're doing by shutting down the Senate for 30 hours in order to protest the Dems shutting down the judicial nomination process. Sadly, I fell for the gambit and watched C-SPAN2 for a few hours last night. I think I feel less guilty watching C-SPAN while outlining torts than if I was watching the Bachelor (not that I would).

Posted by: s_dub | November 13, 2003 5:19 PM

Surely what you really write on the sign is the name of the show you *know* the Republicans would want to be watching if only they weren't providing the rest of the world with something to point and laugh at. I suspect this tells us more about the tastes of the right than the left ;-) M

Posted by: martin | November 14, 2003 5:26 AM

You're an idiot literalist � watching TV, it was a joke fool.

Posted by: Eric | November 15, 2003 3:14 PM

How erudite, Eric. May I compliment you on your sense of humor.

Posted by: A. Rickey | November 15, 2003 5:30 PM

Innouncement!!!

Posted by: Creno | February 20, 2004 8:14 AM