Obama tainted

[LA Ute]

Each election when I review our pamphlet I'm always amazed at how little most politicians did with their lives other than politics. Here in Washington almost all of them didn't even go to good schools or distinguish themselves academically, including the judges (AG Rob McKenna the only exception). Like geckos, politicians seem to be hard wired for just one thing.

Our political class right now is terrible. I do not think we should yearn for the golden days of yore, but at the same time I don't see any Henry Clays or Daniel Websters among the current crop. (Harry Reid? Mitch McConnell? Please.)

In my lifetime I can remember Everett Dirksen and Mike Mansfield, people who seemed to have some gravitas. (Dirksen was the NAACP Man of the Year in 1964 or '65, because of his support for the Civil Rights Act, which would never have passed without Republican support. How times change!) There is no one like that anywhere in American politics these days.