Sick Culture

The NYTimes has an excellent editorial up by Norman Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann, If You Give a Congressman a Cookie, that gives an excellent description of the stinking sinkhole of corruption that Washington has become with the republicans in charge.

The two of us have been immersed in Washington politics for more than 36 years. We have never seen the culture so sick or the legislative process so dysfunctional. The plea deals of Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, the indictment of Tom Delay and his resignation as House majority leader, and the demise of Representative Randy Cunningham notwithstanding, this is not simply a problem of a rogue lobbyist or a pack of them. Nor is it a matter of a handful of disconnected, corrupt lawmakers taking favors in return for official actions.

Go read the whole thing.