Another fine mess

Here is a picture of Congressman Laurel and Congressman Hardy. You might know them. They once tried to deliver a piano to a house and ended up destroying the house.

You might even be in their congressional district and voted for them.

You probably heard about Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson getting down on one knee and pleading with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He needed her. Clearly he picked a bad moment to leave his wife and propose to someone else's, but now is not the time to dwell on that. Let's leave their personal lives out of this for a moment and focus.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, certainly focused on the key issue when he said "This legislation is giving us a choice between bankrupting our children and bankrupting a few of these big financial institutions on Wall Street that made bad decisions." Yeah, who are these Wall Street fat cats anyway? I'm sure hauling sacks of money from one big financial institution to the next pays well--for them--but what about the rest of America?

We asked them for funding to keep credit from freezing up throughout this nation, and Congressman Laurel and Congressman Hardy took this as their cue to deliver a piano.

O.K., I don't understand it. The good news is we have nothing to fear, as is clearly evident on President Alfred E. Newman’s face.