Sweetheart, I Never Meta Politician Who Could Play Politics Like You!

Don't you just love it when politicians play politics by accusing other politicians of playing politics?

You don't hear doctors accusing other doctors of "practicing medicine." Or cops accusing their colleagues of "police work." Some how it's bad for a politician to admit that they are "practicing politics." What are they supposed to be practicing then? Quantitative biological analysis? (if there is such a thing).

I mean, here you've got a career that brings forward the most ambitious and egotistical kind of people...the kind of people who want nothing more than to get ahead as politicians.

YET a crucial part of that career is pretending that they're NOT politicians.

So when George Bush accuses Congress of playing politics, when George Bush says "the politicians in Washington" what does he think he is? A firefighter?

I guess he thinks, if he thinks at all, that there's a difference between a politician and a leader, and that he is a leader not a politician: a rose that has grown out of a mud puddle.

And the media generally likes to go with that claim. For one, it would make their self-important jobs look stupid if everyone realized that all of these folks in Washington are obsessed with "playing politics" rather than leading. For two, acknowledging such an idea would revolutionize the culture....it would make people realize that neither the Republicans or even the Democrats have the courage or the vision to "take back America." Rather, it's going to be communities of constituents with hot pokers jabbing these politicians in the ass and getting them to move. That's where the leadership and the vision come into play. And lastly, telling a politician that they are just a politician, etc. would be as cruel as telling a little girl that the doll in her arms is not really her baby, it's just a doll.

And so here's my point: what do politicians aspire to be when they are claiming that it's bad to play politics? What are they saying about themselves? Do they hate themselves? Or do they think that they are not politicians but some vague word that no one has yet really defined as separate from politicians: "leaders."

I think that's what's happening. Every politician hopes to one day be considered a leader. And leaders aren't politicians. Because leaders lead. They don't look at opinion polls. They are too busy "leading" for that. I don't even know how so many poll companies stay in business with all of these leaders who don't look at the polls.

Look, the basic point is that most of these guys and gals care so much about what people think that they don't want people to think that they think about what they think.