Yes, it would be nice if the Dems and Reps would learn to work to together. But after eight years of attack dog tactics from the Rs in congress, I'm afraid the Ds are seeing this as payback time. As long as we are locked into this two party system, we will have adversarial politics that doesn't accomplish much of what needs to be done.

Since the country seems to be so evenly split between moderate conservatives and moderate liberals, one thing that would help would be if President Bush lived up to his promises to be a consensus builder who will work with both parties. He also promised to bring honor, integrity, and a sense of morals back to the White House. Perhaps if he took all that to heart and did the right thing and nominated some moderate or even slightly left of center judges we could avoid some of the the worse gridlock. Maybe if he were honorable enough to govern in a way that took into account the views of the majority that didn't vote for him, we could get something done. But, of course, he can't even listen to the views of the moderate members of his own party, or avoid being a bully when they don't agree with him.

I'm hearing stories about White House staffers high-fiving each other when they managed to publicly humiliate Jeffords for not automatically falling into step with the President's agenda. Why do these people still have jobs? Remember the whole honor and integrity in the White House thing?

John Peekstok