Everything at work needed to be ship-shape, because we had visiting royalty: Our own senator Tom Harkin was stopping by for a press conference. True, other stuff had to be shunted around because Harkin's people were rather vague about the time of his arrival, but hey, it's a hospital--it's not like there are more important things to do.
Harkin's time at Mercy was brief--there wasn't even time for a scheduled tour of Pediatrics; gravely ill children were thus deprived of an opportunity to be used as cheap props--and in his wake, a question lingered: Why the hell was he even there?
After all, on the day of his visit, the senate was voting to authorize Bush's outrageously unconstitutional domestic spying plan. Harkin is a vocal opponent of the president, but when it came time to cast an important vote, he simply didn't bother showing up.
Not that his vote would have mattered, since 16 Quislings--sorry, I meant Democrats--in the Senate and 41 (!) in the House voted to back Our Beloved President.
(One of those 41 was Leonard Boswell, an Iowa Democrat who fought a particularly brutal reelection campaign, but who, when the chips are down, will apparently just give in and piss on the constitution. I voted for Boswell in the last election, somewhat against my better judgement, but I won't do so again.)
Forgive me if I missed something, but when the Democrats made big gains last November, weren't they promising change?
