Anyway, I believe there are a number of such issues and policies that are interestingly bi-partisan without public comment.

I might say it slightly differently, that in mathematical terms, Lobbyists are a compliment super-set intersecting both the Democratic and Republican sets.

See, I was on your side all along.

I've always ascribed to the idea we are ruled by three political parties: Democrats, Republicans, and Lobbyist. Lobbyist are a subset of the other two parties, and they are responsible for the vast majority of the sweet-heart deals we see coming from Washington.

I think even two opposing bomb throwers may well agree on that.

Sorry, you lost me there. I have no idea what point you are trying to make. If it is that charges against Murtha and Dodd are old news and therefore not worthy of discussion, then I don't want to see one more comment about anything from the Bush era. It, too, is now 'old news'.

If you are saying something else, I guess my Anti-American, Leftist-hating, fascist world view filters are preventing me from grasping your meaning.

Hope you're heard. The argument that your examples are old news should not keep such an article from being written and discussed.

As far as bombs go, what would a reactionary, constitution-hating fanatic such as your self know about that? : ) )

I guess we'll see if it works.

I was indeed talking about published stories, as they normally then drive the comments. I also think that despite the occasional bomb-throwing (which I, of course, would NEVER do ), the comments and discourse here are of high quality. That IS what keeps me coming back.

As to the 'charges', there are just a small list of the things that no one that makes top-level posts seems to think worth discussing, while as I said numerous stories about anything and everything critical of Republicans, despite how mundane, seem to crop up regularly. To go into detail on each of those on the top list would require a first-page story for each, and is way beyond what I could or should cover in a comment of an unrelated post.

If one of the editorial staff would like to tackle them, especially the corruption of Murtha and Dodd, and the flat-out refusal of the House and Senate to address those issues, or the growing grass-root Tea Party protests, I would love to get involved in a deeper discussion of those in the comments of those posts.

The others are truly less significant, but still carry more weight that Palin's daughter's breakup with her fiance, at least IMHO.

And Shaun is still here – just as a guest now. He has had three posts in the past week. They can't take ALL my fun away!

Are you looking for those listed issues in sories published here or in people's comments?
The published items come from the editorial staff, so maybe that a great question for them. The coments may merely reflect the political demographics of thse who show up here.

My tangential point was as follows:
One of my first posts here brought a comment that I was merely siting Democratic talking points. I replied that if I was only interested in talking points, I would go to daily kos or townhall .com. Maybe the political game of tag that takes place here is part of this blog's environment. It just seems to me that a lot of back and forth has to take place before any real exchange of ideas takes place. I'd like to think my earlier post above was analysis of why the charges are made not another pie to add to the fight.

You provided an extensive list of Democratic hypocrisies. Maybe you have detailed these in posts prior to my arrival, but if not, let me know the details in the contextual details. I have seen liberal analysis that seems to answer some of these charges, maybe you have facts of which I'm not aware. That exchange would be highly valuable to me and hopefully you too.

The reason for all my responses here is simply to entice an intelligent exchange. It seems like by the time everyone's done throwing bombs, the thread is used up. Then again, I could just be densely and completely wrong.

We travel a lot, and are constantly astounded by the legacy of the CCC and WPA from FDR's administration. Minus those contributions, which are 70+ years old, many of the most worthwhile tourist experiences wouldn't be possible. I'd hate to live in a country where Disney and South Beach and their private enterprise ilk represented our only face to the rest of the world. I suspect today's earmarks often provide similar benefits.

I've also wondered whether there would ever be an entire state delegation in Congress that would oppose earmarks. It's easy to refrain from inserting earmarks in the budget when your state is getting its share because another member of your delegation is taking care of it. And somehow, the top 10 baddies never include those for your own district.

I would like to see at least one more earmark reform. Earmarks which will benefit only a single business entity seem dead wrong to me.

I am very cynical about ALL politicians. They are all hypocrites, varying only in what they are hypocritical about.

And there was a very spot-on cartoon the other day about pork here at TMV making your second point .

If this indeed a Moderate site, committed to better government and governing in general, and non-partisan, why I have I seen little to nothing here on:
Senator Dodd and his myriad shading mortgage dealings
Representative Murtha and his myriad shading dealings of ALL types
The incredibly large number of Obama's nominees that seem to have trouble paying their taxes
The other nominees that seem to get their offices raided for (allegedly) illegal dealing
The large number of lobbyists that Obama has invited to join his government, in direct contradiction of his promise
Maxine Water's duplicitous work on behalf of a bank she has a financial interest in
Discussion on the increasing number of Tea Party protests sweeping the country

No, it is much more important to have numerous and a seemingly unending number of posts on:
Rush Limbaugh
Micheal Steele
Newt Gingrich
Minor Republican Congresspeople over minor amounts of money
George Bush's potential coattail effects on an upcoming 2010 Senate race
Chuck Norris
Paranoid ramblings about hit squads run by Cheney
Even Palin's daughter's break-up with her fiance!

Again, it just seems like on balance the coverage on issues worthy of commentary seems to be, well, tilted a wee bit to the left. I still enjoy coming here (obviously), and the give and take in the comments (most of the time), but I do get tired of the onesidedness.

Altho- I also blame their supporters who expect local programs to be funded, yet call for fiscal discipline!

And by yhe way, this site is not a leftist site just because your argument of “well the democrats do it too,” is refuted so easily. Fox et al are trying to hammer the idea that Obama has gone back on his promise to veto all earmarks. The problem, of course, is that he never made that promise.

If you want to debate the value of earmarks, that's one thing.
If you wish to bemoan the fact that Democrats employ earmarks, vote against the bill, that's another. Republicans made that hypocritical argument, not Dems.

Congress changed hands, the Presidency changed hands, but still the only people worth commenting on on TMV seem to be Republicans. I guess that is because Democrats are so trustworthy they don't need oversight.

Or maybe this REALLY is a Leftist site pretending to be Moderate, as the majority of those of us with Right-leaning views have been saying for some time now.

Why do they bother complaining about it? To please the “watchdog groups”? To please John McCain and Tom Coburn and Russ Feingold (the 1% of Congress that opposes earmarks for their own states)?