The 110th Congress

The 110th Congress opened today, with Nancy Pelosi taking the gavel of the Speaker of the House of Representatives from an uncharacteristically gracious John Boehner. Ms. Pelosi has promised fast action on various bills and a stronger sense of bipartisanship. For now, none of the bipartisanship will come from her; she wants to get some unfinished business from the last Congress, like lobbying reform, through the process first. Not only are Republicans crying foul over being locked out of the initial committee sessions (conveniently forgetting they did the same thing as the majority party to Democrats), but so is Democratic Representative Charles Rangel of New York, who believes that the Democrats shouldn't stoop to the same level so soon and so quickly.

Speaking of Rangel, he got criticized himself for a comment he made several weeks ago when he complained that many states get more back in federal tax money than they pay in. He cited Mississippi as one of the most egregious examples, adding, "Why would anyone want to live in Mississippi?" Though he apologized for the remark, I don't know why he should have - because wasn't he right? Mississippi regularly ranks at the top in having the most overweight residents and the most high school dropouts, the weather is too damn hot, the Gulf Coast resort towns were wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina, there are no decent museums or dance companies, and their intellectual community - William Faulkner - died in 1962. People who live in Mississippi live there because. . . well, someone has to. :-O