General Discussion

patient plodders who put in their ten thousand hours mastering the details of public service. It comes from people trapped in tiny rooms at three a.m. with stale pizza and cold coffee, crafting laws line by line that few will ever read or thank them for. I know it's not the sexy answer, but change happens from people like Henry Waxman. What if I told you there was a single member of Congress who brought the tobacco industry to its knees, paved the way for less expensive drugs, expanded Medicaid to include pregnant women and children, put the teeth into the Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water acts and wrote most of Obamacare? ... And not just the Affordable Care Act. Nursing home reform. Food safety reform. AIDS research. ... As one top Republican put it, 'Fifty percent of the social safety net was created by Henry Waxman while no one was looking.' And that's the thing about being a workhorse instead of a show horse: no one is looking. Waxman never went on the Sunday talk shows; he didn't do TV at all. ... Kerry, Hillary, Barney Frank, John Lewis, Nancy Pelosi, Obama -- these are the wonks who never satisfy the radicals but know how to make actual progress, as opposed to doing progressive theater. It's not the screamers and the tweeters, it's the worker bees with the name tags and the binders.

"Pundits have always referred to the Republican Party as the Daddy Party, which makes Democrats the Mommy Party... . But Republicans aren't the Daddy Party anymore. They're more like the Absentee Father Party ... . But for so many who are just trying to survive in this American family, they have to come to terms with the reality that the Daddy Party is the Deadbeat Dad Party ... and you know what happens when Daddy's a useless piece of crap? Mommy has to take over. That's why the Democrats are no longer the Mommy Party -- they're the Single Mom Party. They're the party that has to work two jobs because Daddy went out for cigarettes and never came back. The Single Mom Party is the only one that cares about the kids' future."

Bill Maher, "What This Comedian Said Will Shock You"