Note to Senator Clinton: Congress is not your campaign staff

Dear Senator Clinton:

I'm willing to believe that your campaign had nothing to do directly with the Women's Voices, Women's Vote vote suppression debacle; that it was simply a function of overzealous allies. It's hard, but I'm willing to do it.

But if you thought a gas tax holiday was a great enough idea that it should be legislated immediately, why didn't you introduce it before John McCain started talking about it?

Sen. Hillary Clinton plans to introduce legislation today in the U.S. Senate following up on her campaign commitment to put the federal gas tax on hiatus during the peak summer driving season, said campaign spokesman Doug Hattaway.

The bill, which is to be co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), would essentially implement the break in the gas tax on consumers while imposing a tax on oil companies to make up for lost revenue. Hattaway said it is unclear when the bill would come up for a vote, but added that the goal is to have the policy in place in time for the summer driving season, which is traditionally viewed as opening on Memorial Day.

There’s virtually no chance Congress will approve a gas tax holiday before then–or at all. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she, like Sen. Barack Obama, does not support the moratorium.

So in essence, Senator, you're asking the Democratic Congress to fall on its sword for the sake of YOUR campaign, so that YOU can be just like McCain in pandering to cash-strapped voters by tossing a few bucks their way this summer and hoping it shuts them up. Between this and your "God blessed us" words in talking on Faux Noise about how you and your husband got your $100 million, as if The Almighty Himself deemed that you should be financially rewarded for your travails, you're behaving more like a Republican than a Democrat.

I want to believe that if you manage to wrangle this prize you want so desperately, as if your very ability to draw breath depends on it, that you would at least be marginally better than John McSame and his narcissistic predecessor. But every day you give me less confidence that such is the case.

And as for you, Sen. Menendez, you should be ashamed of yourself.