It seemed that politicians were much smarter twenty years ago

[TruthIsAll]

then they are today. The quality of our congressional reps and senators has diminished greatly, except for a few like Kucinich and Waxman and Wellstone (rest his soul) and other liberals.

Just look at the good ones, they have been around awhile: Jeffords, Kennedy, Byrd, Graham, etc. Hillary is plenty smart, though.

I don't know what happened to guys like Biden and Lieberman.

Otherwise, there has been a dumbing-down across the board in Congress, primarily on the Repuke side, of course.

As for the Repukes, who do we have now? DeLay, Frist, Hastert, Zell Miller (he's a DINO), Saxby Chambliss, Pataki (a governor). What a vicious, evil, history-challenged bunch. Of course, Bush takes the cake.

Hey, if the general population has been dumbed-down, could we expect otherwise from the politicians?

Sometimes I think we know more than they do, with online access to information at our fingertips, while these jokers mangle the truth. They are so arrogant in thinking that we are as stupid and ill-informed as they, while they are consumed with just one thing - robbing us blind.

[Democat]

1. It seems like the old time fighting Democrats have been replaced by wimps

The Republicans may be corrupt and ignorant, but at least they are willing to fight for what they believe in.

So many of our elected Democrats are just too scared of offending anyone to be effective.

Until we get rid of the wimps and replace them with people willing to fight the GOP, we are going to be in trouble.

I wonder if the upcoming batch of Democratic leaders will be better or worse than the ones we have now?

[gmoney]

2. Well, the best and brightest no longer go into politics

The truly smart people seem to be going into business and other enterprises where they don't have to endure the endless scrutiny and backstabbing of partisan politics.

Seems very few good people are getting the "calling" to go into politics, and even if they do, it's rare that a person of ethics can overcome the slimeweasels and actually get elected. Wellstone and Kucinich are aberrations, not likely to be repeated until there is huge campaign finance reform.

My idea is that candidates can raise as much money as they want -- but all the raised money is pooled among all candidates for a given office and divided equally. If buying TV ads is all about promoting the issues and positions, what honest candidate could object?

[OHdem10]

3. This is absolutely not intended to flame

or be didrespectful but 20 years ago we did not have the Centrist wing of the Party. We were either Democrats or Republicans You believed in the Democratic Party or you did not. When you are meandering left anright when not hiding under a desk so as not to offend anyone, it is very very easy to throw your core values to the wind. Since this group of "Centrists have the power in the party
it is very easy for the American people to wonder what we stand for .
It is very confusing to think they vote for Bush tax cuts all the way and give the Medicare issue to Republican Party.

No the Representativdes in House and Senate are not dumber--they are very busy weasiling around trying to stay out of sight--they cannot afford to be confrontational---they are e too busy playing both sides of the street hoping their consituents will not catch them sucking up to the Corporate Interests.