National Zoo

The bad news is that Congress is taking a summer vacation while postponing legislation on Universal Health Insurance. It is bad for the millions of uninsured people and, to a lesser degree, for the visitors to our nation's capital.


Because two of the most visited tourist attractions in Washington, DC, are the National Zoo in Rock Creek National Park, and its branch on Capitol Hill.


The main zoo is home to more than four hundred and sixty species of animals from all over the world, while its Capitol Hill branch contains four hundred and thirty five specimens, collected from every state in the United States.


The Capitol Hill species are certainly not as exotic as the ones in the main zoo. They do not, for example, include Cheetahs (though they certainly have their share of cheaters), and while they have many parrots and some decent humans, the place is known for its dogs (blue and Democrats), and its ostriches (red and Republicans).


The blue dog democrats are a recent reincarnation of the "Reagan Democrats" and like their political idols have a strong and selfish belief that they are better than the rest of us. They have the best health care system that our money can buy, and are sure that they deserve it, but we do not.


The Republican ostriches, unlike the original African species, bury their heads in the ground, thus keeping themselves always immune to new ideas, and at times oblivious to the truth, and the only sound that they emit is: "no".


Is it possible that the Republican party adopted as its working motto the observation by Henry Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."