I think you're being pessimistic and unnecessarily contrarian. Both sides have been steadily moving in the direction of us vs. them, attack-on-every-front politics. Coburn has made a foray in the other direction. This was done with the considerable risk of irritating his 'Fox News' base of supporters.

Our politicians take their cues from public reaction. Most of them have been acting abysimally lately, by deliberately misleading the nation, just to discredit the opposition party. If one of them bucks that trend, you bet your ass I'm going to send him cakes and gold stars. If those are a few of the tools I can use to encourage good government, then I'm using them.