All in Vain

MANIFESTO

Given the fact that Connecticut

Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman said [yesterday] that President Obama should once more invite Republicans into health care discussions,

I can't help but think of a revered founding father who lost his patience:

Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves ... We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves ... Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt ... In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.

As the great man might as well have said,

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the [Republicans] for the last [year] to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House.

And yet, with all of the past experiences to guide them, our ridiculous senators keep hoping for different results after performing the same experiment over and over again.