What do you hate most about politics and politicians?

[infinite monkey]

Hey you guyyyyyyyyyysssssssss (as yelled by Rita Moreno on Electric Company) STOP ACTING LIKE 9TH GRADERS. That goes for the constituents as well. Big baby boo boos, for crying out loud.

Romper Room politics are good for some people, due to their limits of understanding anything much beyond the ABCs and Run Dick Run. But most of us are sick of the politicians and the big baby boo boos with their thumbs in their ears, waving their fingers, and saying 'n'yeah n'yeah n'yeah."

Time to grow up and put on your big boy and girl pants. Taking your ball and going home is SO 40 decades ago.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/0...ex.html?hpt=T2

If life (and politics) sometimes seems stuck in the ninth grade, the recent gyrations between the White House and congressional Republicans is a perfect case in point. The topic: averting a government shutdown. The meeting: on Capitol Hill between House GOPers and Senate Democrats.

Not invited to the party (or so they say): The White House.

I actually spent time trying to figure this out. Not exactly a lucrative reporting experience, as it turns out. Here's how each side portrayed the perceived slight:

From a senior White House adviser: Office of Management and Budget director Jack Lew asked to go to the meeting. He was turned down.

From the president: "The speaker apparently didn't want our team involved in that discussion. That's fine." (Not.)

From a top aide to House Speaker John Boehner: That's not what happened.

Of course, it doesn't really matter, except that this is no spring fling. It's about a shutdown of the federal government that a) would be stupid, self-defeating and hurtful and b) would distract attention from more important budget issues to deal with in the future.