The Gloves Come Off

A hat tip to Rolling Stone for bypassing the election handicapping, “will-they-or-won’t-they” punditry over majorities and minorities, and just flat-out laying into this Congress.

Sure, one party rule has driven the institution to lowly depths.  Given the pervasiveness of red-blue polarization, however, the shame of Congress tends to be mostly framed in terms of a Republican political problem, with less focus on the disgrace of an institution.

As remedy, the new RS bookends its previous “Worst President Ever“ cover/story with its complement,  “The Worst Congress Ever.”

Given The BAG‘s visual eye (and the fact an election is barreling down), I took a particular interest in the accompanying feature, The “10 Worst Congress People.”  Each of the members (9 of the 10 being Repubs, by the way) are profiled for their excesses, indiscretions and abuses.  Accompanying each is also a quirky piece of animation exploiting a silly cultural analogy or underlying character aspect.

If these visuals are mostly sophomoric, I thought the send-up of James Sensenbrenner seemed particularly apt.  Besides nailing the Congressman for his attitude and pegging the overall personality of a badly ingrown Republican leadership, this transformation presents an inescapably obvious metaphor:

We not only need new governance, we need a whole new culture of governance.

(image: unattributed.  Rolling Stone Magazine.  October 2006.  rollingstone.com)