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The Pig Is Committed After listening to years of whining from the Republicans in Congress about waste in government, bloated government, etc. we are now being treated by the spectacle of these self-proclaimed men and women of high standards covering themselves in mud in pursuit of as much pork as they can stuff down their greedy gullets. No surprise really, given the rapidity with which they have allowed power to corrupt their high and mighty selves. It was only ten years ago that the hungry, minority, GOP was decrying the moral decay wrought on the Democrats by nearly forty years of control of the house. Clearly the Democrats of old were made of sterner stuff than these modern Republicans who have descended into the muck and mire in a mere ten years. What is truly astonishing about the GOP, however, is that they continue to portray themselves as the party of lesser government, while they blow out the federal budget and enrich themselves. NPR had an interview with someone associated with the B.B. King Blues Museum being built in Mississippi with at least a million dollars of federal funds. He talked all about how this was going to be an economic development issue, good for the local community, assisted by local fund-raising, etc. He was not asked to confront the more critical national issue: how can the Republicans reconcile their belief in local control, less government, and lower taxes with this sort of funding project? Apparently when they speak of less government they only mean less government for the people who live in Blue states. It's truly bizarre to see the Republican party shoveling largesse onto the poor of the Mississippi delta while denouncing the poor in Los Angeles as leeches. It's even more bizarre to see them giving large handouts to the true leeches, all of those red-state Republicans who claim to be independent, yet receive more in federal money than they pay in taxes. Meanwhile, the Democrats, as always more concerned with preserving the two-party system than with any particular issues, continue to prove the second part of the aphorism from which today's title is taken. Sure, the hens are involved with the process, but their meager chicken-scratching and sops to cooperation with a party that does not seem to understand words like bipartisan, compromise, or diplomacy, serve merely to embarrass them. The truth is, that the only way in which the Republican party has been the 'party of fiscal responsibility' which they claim to be is in their commitment to the bottom line of large corporations. They consistently mismanage the national economy, enlarge the debt, and pursue policies that are not only hostile to workers and the environment, but to small and medium-size businesses as well. Sure, the Democrats believe in tax and spend (at least they used to) but that's how government works. It's been that way at least since ancient Rome. But apparently your modern Republican is beyond mere adherence to historically-proven paradigms. They are out to show that true leadership is only attained by tax-cutting, spending, inducing fiscal crisis, and, eventually, dismantling government services which many in this country feel are vital. And given how they have operated so far, they will manage to blame the liberals for the crisis, be abetted by cowardly democrats, and walk away from the train wreck with sacks full of our money.