New Rules

So what's the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives you might ask? There are many, but the important difference is the the House, like the inner circles of hell, is controlled by Republicans. Abandon all honesty, ye who enter here.

It's funny -- strange funny, not humorous funny -- that until the other day I couldn't get through a meeting or conversation or ball game or almost any other gathering with out a sometimes tearful encomium to the US military and nearly every vehicle around here is covered like some sort of vinyl pox with testaments to the owner's unspecified support of "the troops."

Who knew that "support" meant only keeping them engaged in dubious battle and didn't include appreciating a job well done? My several public utterances of "let's hear it for the SEALS" went not only unaffirmed, but drew glares and in the same venue where a fellow club member became so choked with tears explaining that our freedom is owed to the US armed services more than to anything else that he had to sit down and stop.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a resolution commending the armed forces, the intelligence community, the President and even George W. Bush for a job well done in eliminating the world's most wanted criminal, but since the House passed a new rule forbidding such an encomium just last January right after the Republicans took over, they refused to relent and decided not to follow suit. Too busy trying to kill NPR and Planned Parenthood, don'cha know.

OK, ok, some Democrats are buying into the ban too. I never claimed they were much better, but despite the bumper stickers and flag pins and the empty words and salty tears of John the Weeper, things like the surrender of the Axis powers, landing on the moon and the killing of bin Laden don't happen very often and putting their mouths where their flag pins fly could be managed in a few minutes. Could it be that they simply don't want to say anything that contradicts the anti-Obama hyperbole?

I don't expect much from the House of Representatives and I usually get less than I predict. I didn't predict the sudden silence of my patriotic Republican friends however. If there ever was a time when saying "mission accomplished" would be appropriate, this is it and if you can't support the anonymous members of SEAL Team 6 because you can't accept that Obama defeated an enemy, you can take your flag pin and stick it.