I concur with Kevin Drum that this is Quote for the Day. Heck, it's the quote of the year:

[beachmom]

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/05/quote-day-our-crappy-senate

It's Rep. David Obey who is retiring. This is why:

I believe the job of a good politician was to be used up fighting on behalf of causes you believed in, and when you are used up, to step aside and let someone else carry on the battle. Well, today I feel used up....Given that fact, I have to ask myself how I want to spend the time I have left. Frankly, I do not know what I will do next. All I do know is that there has to be more to life than explaining the ridiculous, accountability destroying rules of the Senate to confused, angry, and frustrated constituents.

....I am also increasingly weary of having to deal with a press which has become increasingly focused on trivia, driven at least in part by the financial collapse of the news industry and the need, with the 24-hour news cycle, to fill the air waves with hot air. I say that regretfully because I regard what is happening to the news profession as nothing short of a national catastrophe which I know pains many quality journalists as much as it pains me. Both our professions have been coarsened in recent years and the nation is the loser for it.

Yup. Crappy Senate. Crappy press.

[karynnj]

1. You're so right - both points are so right on and they are destroying

the ability of government to function.

[Inuca]

2. I watched

most of Obey's retirement presser lat night. Quite something. He will be sorely missed, I am sure, but he sounded sincere when he said what you quoted above, I don't think it's the typical "spend time with the family" crap, nor fear of losing, I think he actually means it, which in and by itself is refreshing.

[Luftmensch067]

3. Thanks for posting, I have to try to catch this on CSPAN

...both our professions have been coarsened in recent years and the nation is the loser for it.

If that doesn't say it ALL...!

[Inuca]

6. They will probably reply it

over the week-end. Very much worth watching.

[wisteria]

4. Sad commentary. n/t

[BlueIris]

5. Depressing. nt

[TayTay]

7. Obey is right, the nation is the lesser for the decline in both institutions

I am not a fan of reality TV shows. (Reality TV has fine shows, I'm sure, they're just not my cuppa tea personally.) I was struck this week by just how much time is allocated on TV to interviewing people who are voted off these shows. It's discussed as if it's meaningful to viewers. This goes beyond incestuous behavior.

Everything is written about as if the participants have just been "voted off the island." It's not substantive, it's about moronic side issues that mean nothing. Politics is about who you want to have a beer with, not about someone who knows something about the issues. This is promoted by TV as is the idea that actually knowing something is horrible trait. (Heavens, you can't be an intellectual, it might mean you know something about the issues which proves that you are an insider and therefore suspect.) I hate this line of thinking. (Reminds me of the buildup to the French Revolution. Off with their heads if they appear to be "elitists." )

The alleged news business is a sham. So, it seems, is the US Senate right now. The Republicans don't believe in governing and are determined to prevent anyone else from governing as well. The Party that repeatedly said in 2005 that "elections have consequences" has decided to ignore elections and pretend that their psychic ability to determine that imaginary results from mid-term elections that haven't happened yet are more important than real election results. The Senate is operating on magic realism at the moment. I agree, financial reform is the last major action from the US Congress this year.

I am actually not completely pessimistic about this. The non-functioning nature of government cannot sustain political movement over time.