Washington DC: Following the heated debates over the Health Care Reform bill in both houses of the US Congress, a bipartisan decision was made to realign the American political parties.
The Republican and Democratic Party leadership evaluated the issues and married (civil ceremony) some Republicans to the Blue Dog Democrats. Very conservative Republicans remain single, while some more liberal Republicans moved in (no civil ceremony) with the Democrats. There are now three US major political parties. The Independent Senator from Connecticut and the Socialist Senator from Vermont still pose a dilemma, by not being married to any party.
The new party core values are: Democrats, politically liberal, color blue, symbol the Donkey, and the mascot is a Loon; Sauercrats (Republicans plus Blue Dog Democrats), politically moderate conservative, color purple, symbol the Centaur, and the mascot is a Raven; and Republicans, politically traditional conservative, color Red, symbol the Elephant, and the mascot is a Hawk.
A Sauercrat conflict with the Baltimore Ravens football team purple logo, was resolved by a congressional mandate calling the Baltimore team the Baltimore Colts, then renaming the Indiana Colts the Indiana Titans, necessitating the Tennessee Titans to then become the Tennessee Raiders, which meant renaming the Oakland Raiders, etc, etc, etc, etc.
Some other assorted problems have also been identified. Designating Minority and Majority Leaders, Speaker(s) of the House and Minority and Minority Whips. Resetting the chairs/desks in the various congressional chambers for three aisles, begging the question of who's on the right and the left? Is there such a thing as "tri-partisan" legislation that reaches across three aisles?
At State of the Union joint sessions of Congress, Americans may not hear "Mr. Speaker I have the great honor and privilege to introduce the President of the United States", unless a coin toss is employed first.
Party fundraisers are notifying their large contributors of the unfolding realignment events and this change is not being well received. Newspapers, political journals, political blogs and political pundits of all persuasions were blindsided and appear to be a bunch of "lame ducks."
It's good to see that not all things really change much in Washington DC politics! A political wag observed, "now Congress really is a three ring circus in a big tent!"
