Excluding Lincoln...

[Mark F. Jenkins]

You are so dead on. It seems sometimes the two parties aren't even listening to each other, just trying to see who can drown out the other guy. Kinda reminds me of the 1850s.

I was thinking that while I was reading about the antebellum period in Team of Rivals... but then I reflected, it's probably been like that all along, more or less... just more noticeable in some periods than others.

Mark Twain on Congress (courtesy of http://www.twainquotes.com/Congress.html):

Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.
- What Is Man?

...the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.
- Letter fragment, 1891

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Congressman is the trivialist distinction for a full grown man.
- Notebook #14, Nov. 1877 - July 1878

All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography; also in Mark Twain in Eruption

The lightning there is peculiar; it is so convincing, that when it strikes a thing it doesn't leave enough of that thing behind for you to tell whether--Well, you'd think it was something valuable, and a Congressman had been there.
- Mark Twain's Speeches, "The Weather"

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar

It is the foreign element that commits our crimes. There is no native criminal class except Congress.
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927

Whiskey is carried into committee rooms in demijohns and carried out in demagogues.
- Notebook, 1868

...I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.
- "Foster's Case," New York Tribune, 10 March 1873

 

[Mason and Dixon]

George Washington. I think with the right men behind him and his will to set the standard, he would do wonders for us.

yeah, no doubt.. In my mind, Washington is far & away the greatest man America has ever produced.. but with that said, in the modern era of overbearing, all-encompassing government.. I think we might benefit from a president like Eisenhower right now.
He was before my time, but my understanding (be gentle if I'm misinformed), is that Ike essentially let the country run itself. The 50s were an incredibly prosperous time in America. I'm tired of politicians that constantly try to fix and regulate things that aren't broken.. maybe a relatively hands-off leader like Eisenhower would restore some self-confidence to the American public & economy (?)

 

[Lee]

yeah, no doubt.. In my mind, Washington is far & away the greatest man America has ever produced.. but with that said, in the modern era of overbearing, all-encompassing government.. I think we might benefit from a president like Eisenhower right now.
He was before my time, but my understanding (be gentle if I'm misinformed), is that Ike essentially let the country run itself. The 50s were an incredibly prosperous time in America. I'm tired of politicians that constantly try to fix and regulate things that aren't broken.. maybe a relatively hands-off leader like Eisenhower would restore some self-confidence to the American public & economy (?)

Welcome Mason Dixon Roller Vixen.................

 

[Samuel.Sohm]

yeah, no doubt.. In my mind, Washington is far & away the greatest man America has ever produced.. but with that said, in the modern era of overbearing, all-encompassing government.. I think we might benefit from a president like Eisenhower right now.
He was before my time, but my understanding (be gentle if I'm misinformed), is that Ike essentially let the country run itself. The 50s were an incredibly prosperous time in America. I'm tired of politicians that constantly try to fix and regulate things that aren't broken.. maybe a relatively hands-off leader like Eisenhower would restore some self-confidence to the American public & economy (?)

I think that's a reasonable opinion to have. We definitely don't need more government regulation (IMO).....