There’s an article in Time about House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi which I think perfectly highlights what’s wrong with America’s leadership.  From the article:

The 66-year-old San Francisco lawmaker is an aggressive, hyperpartisan
liberal pol who is the Democrats’ version of Tom DeLay, minus the
ethical and legal problems of the former Republican House leader. To
condition Democrats for this fall’s midterm elections, she has employed
tactics straight out of DeLay’s playbook: insisting other House
Democrats vote the party line on everything, avoiding compromise with
Republicans at all cost and mandating that members spend much of their
time raising money for colleagues in close races. And she has been
effective. House Democrats have been more unified in their voting than
at any other time in the past quarter-century, with members on average
voting the party line 88% of the time in 2005, according to
Congressional Quarterly. That cohesion enabled Democrats to hasten
President Bush’s slide in the polls when they blocked his plan to
reform Social Security by allowing retirees to eschew guaranteed
benefits in favor of private accounts. Bush’s approval rating remains
depressed–38% in a TIME poll last week–and the Democrats are in their
best position to win the House since Republicans took control of it in
1994.

I don’t know about you but I don’t vote for anybody to go to Congress and vote the party line.  I vote for them with the expectation that they will go to Congress and vote their conscience, for what they think is best for the country.  Hell, I don’t even expect to agree with them all the time, but I do expect them to do what they think is in the best interest of the country and there’s no way they can do that if they vote the party line. 

Is there anyone in our country’s leadership who isn’t serving a political party, PAC or donor interest before they’re serving the country?  I swear at this point I’d trust a room full of convicted felons before I’d trust this bunch.  Why?  Because the felon’s aren’t smart enough to get away with robbing me blind (they did get caught after all) while members of Congress, with the exception of folks like Duke and Delay, are smart enough to get away with it and somehow get re-elected.  I’d rather deal with people who try to stab me in the front than those who keep nicking me in the back.

Now you know why I continue to proudly proclaim myself an independent with a capital "I".