C-span, on March 19 2010: Republicans treat healthcare reform as a gameshow. Literally.

[anigbrowl]

Right now, Rep Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio 14) and two of his colleagues are standing alone on the floor of Congress discussing healthcare.

They're discussing it in the form of a game: March Madness, DC-style, in which they pretend to be eliminating contenders for the title of champion healthcare player, or something, as if they were on ESPN or a gameshow. They even have an elimination chart as a visual aid, to which Rep La Tourette is affixing stickers as his colleagues discuss the 'competitors'. For some reason he also has a large large visual aid depicting the kids' board game Operation, with what I presume are meant to be witty captions for parts of the body politic.

That's right: three Republicans pretending to be sports commentators on the floor of the nation's legislature. I called their offices, and (perhaps not surprisingly) all lines were busy. If you see this message soon after it was posted, turn on C-span for as long as you can stand it (I lasted about 3 minutes) and watch the spectacle of 3 grown men, whose salaries are paid for by your taxes and mine, mocking our nation's political process and the idea of healthcare reform by literally making a game out of it.

In general, I believe in a strategic approach to politics, keeping a cool head rather than being ruled by emotion as the most effective way to get to the result you are seeking. But on this occasion, the only thing I can say is that I hope there's an earthquake and dome of the capitol collapses on top of them.

What. The. Fuck.