Masters Of The House

Between being a political junky and still having adrenaline from playing basketball, I'm still watching the election coverage at 11:30 p.m. As expected, the Democratic party has gained control of the House of Representatives. I'm not angry or surprised by the overall results although certain losses by candidates I favored disappoint me. Rather than offer my own thoughts, I bring you these words that Leonard Pitts, a very liberal, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, published in his syndicated column this morning:

So, if you win power here, please don't assume it validates anything you've done.
If you win, it's because of Mark Foley and Terri Schiavo and Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham and Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush and Jack Abramoff and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Dick Cheney and Hurricane Katrina and 2,800 dead soldiers and because, as my mom used to say, enough is enough and too much stinks.
More to the point, you don't win because of you. Heck, I don't even know who you are. Ever since Bill Clinton left town, you have been inept at defining yourself, communicating your ideals with all the clarity of, well, John Kerry trying to tell a joke.
I don't know what you believe, what you plan, where you want to take the country. I daresay that most people don't. A victory here just means that you were the only other game in town. And yet, it would give you a rare oppportunity.
I suspect I speak for many when I say I'm tired of wedge politics. I'm tired of stupid, I'm tired of greed, I'm tired of polarization, I'm tired of red and blue mattering more than red, white and blue.
I want to know what it's like to have a sense of national mission, what it's like to strive for instead of against. I want to be hopeful about the future again, want my country to be looked at with respect again. Most of all, I want to see statesmen again. Meaning men and women who can debate, do battle, compromise and disagree over issues of great importance, but not let party, partisanship or politics stand in the way of doing what is best for the country.
In these years of Republican bacchanal, we have seen the fissures between us widened, minorities among us demonized. All in the name of politics. Yet, we've seen very little of substance get done.
Now, if the prognostications are correct, here comes you, taking power in a nation desperate for change.
Which brings me to my plea. By all means, enjoy the champagne and confetti. But once the bottles are empty and the floor is swept and it's time to go to work I wish you would, for me, for all of us, remember to do one thing with this victory.
Earn it.