It's amazing that essays like this, however trenchant its viewpoint, still express optimism in the belief that the federal government, let alone the two political parties, can somehow recover a real moral compass and replace decades of secret behavior usually associated with RICO prosecutions, with a standard of ethics that would mystically raise up the "common good".

The New Deal might as well have unfolded in ancient Egypt for all its resonance in an inhumane wasteland like the Bush administration, or for that matter the Clinton administration before it. To be sure president Clinton sounded a whole lot better--100 times more charming, articulate, and intelligent than the cypher we've got now---and sometimes behaved consistent with "Democrat" principles, however much they had been stealthily moved over to the center right by his DLC engine of legitimacy and support. The fact is the common good suffered mightily during his administration as well, before it was brazenly forced onto life support by this current crew of well-dressed, RICO-driven thugs and miscreants...to paraphrase Streisand's character in her movie Nuts, a bunch of "assholes with power".

Short of a revolution, which ain't happenin' any time soon, the only hope in this 24/7 media circus is a metaphoric "stoning" of William Jefferson in the public square as unfit to serve, no buts about it. Without drawing a strong, solid line in the sand, the Democrats, already blending into the corporatocracy right along side the GOP, will render any real difference between the two parties merely cosmetic (and with $400 haircuts and 30,000 square-foot homes, that's already debatable).

Frankly, I'm one who already believes this has happened, but for the sake of the people of New Orleans, I hope I'm proved wrong. Speaker Pelosi, time to unequivocally speak up!

Stewart Braunstein

Port Washington, New York