From Doug Grow's column into today's Mpls Star Tribune - this is really a great read.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4000115.html<snip>
Sen. Mark Dayton has many of his colleagues smiling on the outside but fuming on the inside. The Minnesota Democrat successfully has put the limelight on the two faces of his peers with an ingenious amendment to the Medicare prescription drug bill the U.S. Senate so proudly passed a few weeks ago.
The Senate bill -- and a similar plan passed by the House of Representatives -- is filled with loopholes, exceptions and co-pays for seniors. The bill is a far cry from the serious help that politicians of both parties have been promising to senior citizens for years.
Holding his nose, Dayton voted for the imperfect prescription medicine bill. But he also came up with a creative approach to show his contempt. He dropped an amendment he calls "a taste of our own medicine" on the Senate floor. The amendment requires senators to receive prescription drug benefits no greater than those being proposed for senior citizens. It so happens the benefits proposed for seniors are drastically inferior to those currently enjoyed by our illustrious senators.
"Most members saw this
as demagoguery," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., was quoted as saying in Roll Call. "We weren't going to condone it publicly by taking it seriously. So we all voted for it."
Neat twist. You're a demagogue if you want senators and citizens to receive like treatment.