Post-Tucson, it will be politics as usual

Hope you enjoyed the lull.

By midweek, it's going to be over. The rhetorical ugliness of our political dialogue will be on extravagant display again.

How could it not be? Health care is returning to the agenda in Congress. The radio talk hosts never left the air. By Wednesday if not sooner, Republicans will be using ugly names for Democrats again, and Democrats will return the favor for sure.

Miss that? I didn't think so.

Remember the first days after 9/11. We were all New Yorkers then. All Americans. Our internal disagreements seemed trivial. In the face of an existential threat, we were suddenly united in our sorrow and our grief.

And then just as suddenly, we were not.

In 15 minutes - or was it 20? - President George W. Bush was scoring points through a bullhorn at Ground Zero. Rudy Giuliani was letting the "America's mayor" talk get to his head. Dick Cheney was explaining how waterboarding didn't really count as torture. And America was tumbling thoughtless off to a nonsensical and divisive war.

Democrats didn't have so much power then. But what they had, they exercised with similar anger and bitterness. For them, it wasn't just enough to hate Bush policies. They had to hate, hate, hate Bush the man. They gave as well as they got.

Both sides have been giving energetically since then.

Now this.

After the Tucson lull, there's no evidence that attention spans are any longer. Do vows of politeness and understanding have any more staying power this year?

Truly, they're the New Year's resolutions of 2011.

And midway through January, how many of those are any of us still clinging to?

And for how much longer?

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Did Dix Hills commodities promoter Vince McCrudden really threaten 47 financial regulators, including the boss of the whole SEC? Wouldn't 45 or 46 threats have expressed his irritation just as well? . . . You excited the IRS is ready now to start receiving early electronic tax filings for 2009? Or are you like me? You're far less interested in the early-bird special than the absolute, final, you-go-to-prison-if-you-don't-file, last-minute deadline? . . . If boasts were touchdowns, wouldn't Rex Ryan's Jets have already stomped the Patriots? Yes, would someone please tell Rex boasts aren't touchdowns? . . . Want to take a chance on a $1.6-million house raffle? Did I mention that cops say that raffle, in Massapequa, was fraudulent?

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