Where Have the Adults Been?

In an interview with Ezra Klein on The Rachel Maddow Show on Friday night, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) interjected this comment into a discussion of the fiscal cliff: "The question that ought to be asked is How is it that in this country we would let ourselves get in this position? Where have the grownups been to make sure it doesn't happen?"

Indeed, where are the grownups? And, by extension, who are the children that need babysitting? I think I can identify the bad boys in this sad drama, Senator Coburn. The guilt isn't balanced between the two sides of the aisle. No, Tom, the dysfunction in Washington is personified by a Republican-led House of Representatives that struggles in vain with a radical wing that would see us all on the street with a tin cup, or selling pencils if we're lucky. Oh, and it resides in a Senate minority sworn to rabidly thwart all programs promoted by President Obama.

Don't come out at the end of December, Tom, and pretend to be the reasonable faction of the Republican Party. Ask where YOUR leadership has been. And while you're at it, ask where your party's spirit of civil service is? And where is your party's understanding of democratic politics? What's gone on for the past two years is sickening and things are only getting worse.