They said nothing about whether rubberstamping might return should the next president be a member of their own party.

They shouldn't really have to. I don't have specific statistics so it is my impression, but I can't remember such overwhelming rubberstamping over the 40 years Dems controlled Congress when they were under a Dem president.

While I'm at it, it is amusing the Dems have to defend their tough-guy image. One aspect of Dem politicians that has always bothered me was the tendency to be hawkish, but I overlooked that as being something they knew more about than I and I liked most everything else about them.

If the American voters don't get it now about this most corrupt president and his minions, I really don't know what it would take to convince them.

Haven't we all had enough of one party rule?

Cathy
From the once great State of Michigan

Image, shmimage, let's dump 'business as usual', and start working on SOLVING some PROBLEMS. Problem-solving, it's a learned skill. That's where you take a given situation that is deemed 'bad', and you come up with a positive, pro-active plan to actually DO something to CHANGE it, rather than just bat the issue around like a cat with a mousie-toy. In short, it's called 'work'(gasp), an utterly foreign concept perhaps to the august bodies in both of our major parties, but be that as it may, the cause is just and the time is right for all good men...(yawn). We've seen This Movie before. JFK, in addition to declaring himself a jelly donut, also made mention of a sound principle, 'Ask not, what your country can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for your COUNTRY'. Mere words, but many thought of JFK as one of the more inspirational presidents we've ever had, up there with Reagan, and Roosevelt. Doing something for your country. It sounds a lot like 'work', but with more words. Actually, what Kennedy was really trying to say was 'get off your butts, you miserable parasitic slackers', but you can't say stuff like that on TV. Well, maybe now you can, but Bush hasn't even gotten to the same zip-code as verbally challenging people to do something about their own problems, for a change, and instead of embracing the traditional republican concepts as self-support, smaller government, and the general idea of having people do exactly what JFK described, instead we've seen the GOP-led Congress make a monster mess of things, run up a practically unpayable tab, and fly in the face of the stated principles of their own party at each and every available opportunity.

The author apparently expects some kind of miracle out of the minority
democrats, a hail-mary pass or something of equal status, a way to 'fix the republicans' bad', in some
fanciful form that has somehow escaped the 'end to big government and higher taxes' republicans.

I think that The Moral Of The Story is: grassroots initiatives have to start with people refusing the handout. Take yourself off the dole. Fix your OWN life, and when enough people are doing that, then the guys n gals clamoring for your vote will be adjusting their platforms to suit YOUR agenda, and not before. If people say 'hey, neither a lender nor a borrower be', start saving their money, and doing all the other common-sense things like curtailing their fuel use whenever possible, Congress will eventually sit up and take notice, democrat, republican, or otherwise.
Vox Populi, the literal voice of the majority, speaks louder than the most obnoxious, verbose, long-winded rhetoritician that you could possibly ever conceptualize. We, The People, need to become more vocal, and for one thing, request that more of these spending things, for example, get put forward for public approval instead of all just wrapped in one big ball and thrown at the public with the warning, 'catch!!!' LOL.
Congress overspends because 'we' let them overspend, by failing to protest grotesque budgets and general failures to uphold the public trust.
In other words, these guys are soooo fired, but it's false hope and complacency to assume that their replacements will indeed learn from their predecessors' mistakes. That's why an open public dialogue on the issues is so important, so as to give vent to grievances and forum for new ideas.

Congress ultimately listens to The People, but the people have to speak clearly in a unified voice for change, and may end up repeating themselves. Eventually, though, the 'good' will get through,
but it's got to start with basics, like public accountability. People have to have the will to recall representatives if they fail to meet that standard, if they don't consult at least periodically with the voting public, if they don't at least TRY to adhere to some common-sense basic principles even in the face of monetary temptation.
Let business be business, and let Congress be Congress, I say, and never the twain shall meet save in the face of a breach of law.
The buying of influence is a story that is second only in its' gravity to that of the Iraq war, and I think the fact that Congress hasn't stood up yet as a Body and declared for a national fuel conservation effort speaks VOLUMES about the whole insane clown posse.
Reform isn't hard. It just takes some honesty, some hard work, and some of that good old common sense, which we're told is neither, but I beg to differ, I believe that, for example, an energy-independent nation can't help but eventually prosper, and if we don't start thinking along those general lines, national bankruptcy awaits us. Won't be any 'benefits' to live off of, then...remember to vote in November!