Doc, It Hurts When I Do This ...

Remember that old joke?

A man is having a checkup in his doctor's office. He demonstrates some sort of physical movement that is difficult for him and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this ..."

And the punchline of the joke is then delivered by the doctor, who tells the patient, "Then don't do that!"

That's the sensation I've been getting this week as I've listened to the speeches at the Republican convention.

The answer to every problem is the political equivalent of "Then don't do that!"

Unfortunately, few of us have the option of not doing that which causes us pain.

Doc, it hurts when I put gas in my vehicle ...

Doc, it hurts when I buy food at the grocery store ...

Doc, it hurts when I pick up my prescription drugs ...

At the Republican convention, the punchline has been "Washington is broken!"

That may well be true. But it carries with it certain implications that the Republicans haven't seemed too anxious to address.

"The problem is that American voters have yet to hear — from John McCain or his warm-up acts — any serious ideas on what, exactly, is wrong with Washington," writes the New York Times, "apart from the fact that a Democrat might win the White House, never mind how to truly fix it."

It's fine for McCain to complain about the "constant partisan rancor" in Washington and to proclaim that "change is on the way!" But if Washington is, indeed, "broken," how much responsibility for that belongs to the Republicans, who have held the White House since January 2001 and controlled Congress from January 1995 until January 2007?

Was it ever reasonable to expect the new Democratic majority in Congress to turn things around in Washington in less than two years?