All right, back to other matters. Evan Bayh's decision to leave the United States Senate, do you buy his view of the Senate, in other words, what he said the reason was, why he was leaving?
MARK SHIELDS: I have no reason not to buy his view, Jim. I admire anybody who runs for office. It's a very personal decision. And the decision not to run is equally personal.
I think, in Evan Bayh's case, I -- I don't think it's a question of bipartisanship, as much as it is there -- every year, "Fortune" magazine lists the 100 best places to work. The Container Store and Smucker's jams, and places like that are always listed.
Nobody is listing the United States Senate. I mean, it is not a positive work environment. And there is a lack of civility. There really is. And one of the great suggestions that was made, I think, by Norm Ornstein, the political scientist who has appeared on this show, was that the Congress be in, in three weeks in a row, Monday through Friday, first thing in the morning until late at night Friday, and that they are here, and then they take a week off.
And that would force them to bring their families here. If you are -- if I see you with your child at a soccer game, it is tougher for me to demonize you on Monday.
And I just think, somehow, there's got to -- before we ever get to, you know, collegiality again, there has got to be civility. And I think civility come with just getting to know each other.
via www.pbs.org
It's got a lot worse since Abbott became Opposition leader - allegations (all unsubstantiated) of bribery, corruption and manslaughter are thrown about with great abandon.
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