As recorded for broadcast on WCBC Radio, 5-22-10

"Walls tower and chasms yawn between us, but Americans Blue and Red unite in shared revulsion at entrenched incumbency..."

Like Barbara Mandrell and country music, so it is with me and Keystone Light. We were it when it wasn’t cool.

And while country long ago traded rebel passion for scripted sameness, so that most of it is anything but cool, Keystone Light is the real deal in good, cheap beer. And that’s not just cool, it’s ice cold.

Can I get an Amen?!

Thus do I anoint myself, not only witty and insightful, but visionary.

For word of this most bodacious brew now goes forth from sea to sea, with a national advertising campaign built upon the truth that my beer of choice is “always smooth.”

Not to mention $6 less a 30-pack than Coors, while Keystone tastes just the same, only better for its value.

The beer was revealed to me more than five years ago, ironically – given my political inclinations -- by Cousin Tom, he of the once upon a grand outhouse and lately of the Tea Party crowd. Well, not really, because Tom’s not all that angry, but he’d be right there if they ever recruited at the Frostburg Legion.

The family’s good folk, though, so hope remains.

I locked lips with Tea Partiers last time, and was pleasantly surprised that just one antiseptic brain-cell purge cleansed the urge to herd, and restored me to independent thought.

Well, here I go again, sand-bagging common ground around a sentiment churning years among the grass roots, now spreading far and wide across the fruited plain. Walls tower and chasms yawn between us, but Americans Blue and Red unite in shared revulsion at entrenched incumbency.

The Framers designed the House for frequent turnover, thus elections every two years. What they didn’t envision were lobbyists showering campaign cash that squashes all comers and preserves a mutually beneficial status quo where 98 percent of incumbents are re-elected.

It is a measure of how stagnant and putrified the place has become, that West Virginia’s ethically challenged Alan Mollohan – whose daddy held the seat before him – finally got busted out after 14 freakin’ terms, and pundits were shocked; shocked that such a thing could occur in the People’s House.

And no I won’t cry for Argentina or Arlen Specter. He was neither of Party nor principle, but of power. And I won’t forget Anita Hill because we remain sentenced to Clarence Thomas.

Thus I join the Tea Party in declaring, “Out with ‘em all!”

Or maybe not.

Given a Rightist zealotry that pre-dates Newt, incumbency certainly won’t be held against our own Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

I was at the Frederick News-Post in ’92 when Roscoe backed into office after the Democratic Party imploded over the Byron dynasty’s primary smack-down, and the 6th District turned deep Red.

Given his advanced years, the good Mr. Bartlett may well lay legitimate claim to having been at the first tea party, but won’t mention that he first won election strongly endorsing term limits.

That was eighteen years ago.

Dead wood Left and Right litters Congress. I commend the Tea Party for thinning its corrupt ranks, and restoring a measure of power to the people. Our common prayer must be that it is wisely employed…