The message from Washington was as sadly unambiguous as the testimony at an A.A. meeting: "My name is the Government of the United States and I have hit rock bottom. After years of denying my problems, I finally cannot function."
The Columbus Day crack-up -- and the week of budget blustering that followed -- can serve as a lasting metaphor for national decline. Picture a government so broke and divided that patriotic tourists in Washington were caught between frustration (closed monuments) and farce (Congress in session). The public reaction was rage, an indiscriminate mad-as-hell roar. The politicians responded at first in...
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