A haunted house

THE very open and very public war of words at the Senate is a revelation to the people that all is not well in a body composed of less than two dozens of our national leaders.

At present, there are only 23 incumbent members of the Senate, very few compared to our population of almost one hundred million as of last count. If they cannot even at the very least be civil to each other, it is so difficult indeed to even call for or hope for unity of purpose and unity in action. Follow the leader, as well as leadership by example, are already very old, tried and tested, principles of management.

Of course, agreement on all issues and on all concerns is not expected, but for the incumbent members of the senate to wash their dirty linen in public, many times going to the level of personal and unprofessional, is to remove the focus on solving problems and transfer the concentration on entertainment that is not entertaining.

All of these may just be because of politics as usual, but it appears to go beyond just politics when there are other issues raised like insanity, like almost flunking the bar exams, like emitting a foul odor, like being given maternal advice, like unpaid debts in millions of a dead man that go as far back as twenty years ago, like usurpation of authority or otherwise acting as somebody one is not, like wood for the construction of a house, like who knows what else they know that we do not know.

Well, maybe this is the new politics, or still the old one but on a different level, much lower rather than much higher. Whatever it may be, it is just so frustrating.

To make things worse, other incumbent members of the senate, instead of trying to diffuse the tension, even increased the tension by joining the brawl. In addition, even the staff, or the Chief of Staff for that matter, has likewise joined the fracas.

Right now, especially with the midterm elections just around the corner, this rumble is unfortunately expected to boil and not to simmer, to get louder and not to get muted, to escalate and to intensify and not to die a natural death.

This public display of disaffection will even continue if in fact cases will be filed, not only at the Senate Ethics Committee, but also at the Supreme Court.

These legal actions, no longer just political, will create a new battleground or battlefield, thereby not only having a prolonged war, but also a protracted war. Too bad, this is just not the time for war, of words, of laws, of any other kind of war for that matter.

There are barely a few days left before Congress adjourns to give way for the midterm elections. There are still a lot of priority bills and other landmark legislation that need to be passed. If and when the incumbent members of the senate do not enter into some kind of truce or pact so work can be done, they are bound to waste precious time in favor of their tirades. They might as well adjourn already as we are not at all interested in their quarrels.

True, there is an issue about the senate leadership, but the way to go is to gather enough votes to remove the old and elect the new, just not like this, when personal and unprofessional matters are raised, and at one point the discussions even went as far as foreign shores.

True, there is an issue about the cash gifts, but the way to go is to spend the public funds for all the victims of the consecutive disasters or any other social service for that matter, just not like this, when the complaint is why others received more and why others received less, especially when it appears now that these cash gifts are apparently given every single year.

Well, the way it looks now, the way it sounds now, skeletons in the closet and ghosts of the past are all going to be exposed. This upper chamber of ours is beginning to be like a haunted house.

Comments are most welcome. Please send them to onesmallvoice2013@gmail.com.