Mafia culture gripping the Senate

Friday, December 27, 2013
By Paul Martin

DANA MILBANK
TriCities.com
Tuesday, December 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — Remember the new spirit of cooperation in Washington? That’s so last week.

The era of good feeling is over, its duration measured in days, or perhaps hours. Last Wednesday, 36 Senate Republicans — 80 percent of the caucus — voted against the budget compromise drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, last year’s Republican vice presidential nominee.

Already, Republicans, including Ryan, are making noises about another showdown early next year over the federal government’s debt limit. You might say they’ve returned to their default position.

By Thursday morning, Senate leaders were back to petty bickering. Harry Reid, the majority leader, called Republicans “very shallow” and said “obstruction has become a bad habit of theirs.”

Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, accused Democrats of an “incredible abuse of power” and of running the country like a “banana republic.” In retrospect, how could it have been otherwise? These aren’t conventional political rivals we’re talking about. They are more like warring mafia families. James Gandolfini may have left us in 2013, but the spirit of the mob boss still dominates in the Capitol. Not only is it legal to put contracts out on each other here, it is expected.

The political killings are accomplished by syndicates known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, run by the senators themselves with the goal of unseating rivals across the aisle: not just disagreeing with them, but taking them out.

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