Senator McCaskill is Tired

For those who missed this
lovely tidbit in Wednesday’s Bloomberg story:

Missouri Democratic Sen.
Claire McCaskill questioned whether the Senate would have anything left for the
global warming debate after it is finished with health care.

"I've
not been around here a long time; I'm pretty new," McCaskill said.
"But I've got to tell you, after you do one really, really big, really,
really hard thing that makes everybody mad, I don't think anybody is excited
about doing another really, really big thing that's really, really hard, that
makes everybody mad."

So, let me get this
straight. Passing one bill was so very, very tough that Congress cannot possibly
have the stomach to take on another immediate threat? Wow. I wish I
only had to take on a challenging project every two years.

In contrast, let’s take a
look at Congressman Perriello (D-VA).
This is a guy who barely won in the last election and he has refused to
play it safe. In fact, after last
week’s health care vote, his spokesperson said, "A
lot of the political pundits and all the conventional wisdom is saying that
this is going to cost him the election next year…. He didn't come to Congress
to get re-elected." He
came to Congress to take on the really, really hard issues.

Seems to me that serving in
elected office is about working through the tough issues for the greater
good. I don’t believe that Senator
McCaskill came to Congress just to name post offices. She came to make a difference. This is the moment to do just that.

I know the Senator knows
that. I know our President knows
that. President Obama is the one who said, "I'm not going to
kick these problems down the road for another four years, another eight years,
to the next president, the next generation…. We're going to tackle 'em
now."

P.S. One of the many good
things about Senator McCaskill is that she responds to the public. She is an active twitter user and you
can find her @clairecmc. I encourage you to let her know that we
can’t give up. Congress must rise
to the occasion or we will all face the consequences.