A lesson from history

The Washington Post looks back for examples of how past presidents whose party lost control of congress reacted. They offer up an example of how a president totally lacking in class handled the situation:

The president was in a funk. Morose from midterm elections that handed Congress to the opposition, he stewed in private, vented to friends, turned on aides and summoned self-help gurus to help him understand just what went wrong. He was left to argue with reporters that he was still "relevant."

They do go on and offer some observations that are actually helpful, but I thought their opening reminder that no matter how much we may feel disappointment at Bush the fact is that it could be worse was the most important.

The truth is that other than extending his tax cuts and staying the course in Iraq the President's agenda for his last two years was likely to be increasingly left leaning anyway. The fact that he now has a congress that wants to make the next two years an extended anal examination of his first six years may just save the nation just may prompt some much needed gridlock.

Reagan was correct when he noted that "that government which governs best governs least". Perhaps the circumstances will drag our government, kicking and screaming, back to the "best" form of governance.