CARTOON: Why I'm still laughing

There's a really funny political cartoon in Sunday's newspaper. It depicts the president getting elbowed in the mouth by "Republican Senators" carrying a basketball labeled "filibuster threat." This is, of course, over the tax cut bill, which they're filibustering because it doesn't extend the Bush tax cuts for people earning.

The reason it's funny is the current Republican minority in the Senate filibusters just about everything they see. They filibuster bills they don't like, bills they do, even bills they wrote. They'd filibuster Ronald Reagan's birthday card if a Democrat signed it first. I don't even know why the Republicans issued this filibuster threat - we Democrats knew they were going to filibuster it just because it was there. I am pretty sure the Republicans would have figured out some reason to filibuster a tax cut bill that gave them everything they wanted; they would have found some minor technical flaw that demanded obstruction.

In the aftermath of the Republicans' vote to raise my taxes, I really would like it if they'd just grow up.

JIM MOWREADER

Hayden