If you want to paint the picture of it being the fault of the guy across the aisle, and you're having a meeting with him, and you know that he is going to paint the same picture, then why not do it in front of a camera?
If you guys are confident in your abilities of governing and think that you have the right ideas to bring to the table then we should see evidenct of this. This is too important a subject to hide this discussion from we the people.
I've seen alot of these lately. Some people will bemoan a topic and there will be the inevitable accuser. But, the accuser will not state a counterpoint.
"LA is awesome."
"LA is a dirthole."
"LA has this, this, and this. You are a dirtbag."
"I am great and so is my city."
And that place is...?
From Delancy Place about LBJ's first debate with JFK:
"As he took his seat on the stage, Kennedy wasn't at ease -- a reporter noticed his leg shaking under his trousers -- but no one seeing only his face would have known it. And when he rose to speak, looking out at the ballroom that, one Texas reporter wrote, 'Johnson had packed full of his folks,' Kennedy said with a smile that he was glad the vote for the nomination wasn't being taken there. 'I doubt whether there is any great groundswell for Kennedy in the Texas delegation,' he said. The audience chuckled at that, and laughed when, after promising to campaign for Johnson if Johnson won the nomination, he said, 'And if I am nominated, I am confident that Senator Johnson will take me by the hand and lead me through the length and breadth of Texas.' He said he wasn't going to argue with Johnson on the issues -- 'because I don't think Senator Johnson and I disagree on the great issues that are facing us' -- and said he admired him for his work as Majority Leader. 'If [I am] successful in this convention,' he said, 'it will be the result of watching Senator Johnson ... for the last eight years. I have learned the lesson well, Lyndon, and I hope it may benefit me in the next twenty-four hours. ... So I come here today full of admiration for Senator Johnson, full of affection for him, and strongly in support of him -- for Majority Leader.' The audience laughed again. When Kennedy sat down at the end of his opening statement, there was quite a bit of rather warm applause.
"As he took his seat on the stage, Kennedy wasn't at ease -- a reporter noticed his leg shaking under his trousers -- but no one seeing only his face would have known it. And when he rose to speak, looking out at the ballroom that, one Texas reporter wrote, 'Johnson had packed full of his folks,' Kennedy said with a smile that he was glad the vote for the nomination wasn't being taken there. 'I doubt whether there is any great groundswell for Kennedy in the Texas delegation,' he said. The audience chuckled at that, and laughed when, after promising to campaign for Johnson if Johnson won the nomination, he said, 'And if I am nominated, I am confident that Senator Johnson will take me by the hand and lead me through the length and breadth of Texas.' He said he wasn't going to argue with Johnson on the issues -- 'because I don't think Senator Johnson and I disagree on the great issues that are facing us' -- and said he admired him for his work as Majority Leader. 'If [I am] successful in this convention,' he said, 'it will be the result of watching Senator Johnson ... for the last eight years. I have learned the lesson well, Lyndon, and I hope it may benefit me in the next twenty-four hours. ... So I come here today full of admiration for Senator Johnson, full of affection for him, and strongly in support of him -- for Majority Leader.' The audience laughed again. When Kennedy sat down at the end of his opening statement, there was quite a bit of rather warm applause.
"Johnson started off on Phil Graham's 'high road,' although it was an arm-waving, blustering journey -- 'And when I take the oath of office next January . . .' -- but before long he veered off.
"He had gotten a civil rights bill through the Senate, he said, but not every senator had been present to help him. 'Six days and nights we had 24-hour sessions,' he said, shouting every word. 'Lyndon Johnson answered every one of the fifty quorum calls. Some men who would be President answered none.' He had voted in all forty-five roll calls, he said. 'Some senators missed 34.' A Texas legislator, George Nokes, leaned over and whispered loudly to the other people in his aisle, 'Lyndon sure bear-trapped him, didn't he?'
"After a brief, whispered conference with his brother, Kennedy rose to reply. Johnson's face had been grim as he spoke. On Kennedy's face was a grin. Senator Johnson had criticized some senators, he said, but he had not identified those he was talking about, so 'I assume he was talking about some other candidate, not me.'
"The grin broadened. 'I want to commend him for ... a wonderful record answering those quorum calls,' he said.
"People in the audience started to chuckle, and then others started to laugh, and a wave of laughter swept over the hall. Turning to Johnson, Kennedy shook his hand for the photographers, and walked out of the hall, his little band following him."
