America, The Happy Drunk

I'll direct you here. To me the important point is this:

... one of the lessons of the current mess in the Gulf is that when you try to make policy based on the politics as opposed to the merits, you always, always, always get bit in the ass.

This has always been my answer, as well, when I hear the arguments about how we need the politics in order to get a watered-down, half-baked, semi-pro, crapola health care bill, or energy bill, or climate bill. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but I guess the machinery of politics, Obama-style, has been oiled. My emphasis.