First, the salamander of the month club.

I liked Newt's attitude when asked about smoking marijuana in his college days; he admitted it without any, ' I didn't inhale baloney '. I really liked his ' Republican Contract With America '; it dealt with the issues and contributed mightily to the 94' Republican House and Senate landslide seat pick-ups. He came on strong like a dinosaur, as the Clinton impeachment affair was developing, but wallowed like a polywog, when the chips were down. His complicity in running the failed '98 Republican party campaign, was both disgraceful and weak. Oh yeah, his 76 million dollars of fund raising, was actually attributable to the office of the Speaker of The House, and not just his personally. His sucking up to the President ( in the budget agreement in particular ), was only topped by Monica Lewinsky. Smile like a reptile, sucker!

The Armey in full retreat.

His failures were going along with all of Newt's great ideas, and not bothering to offer up any criticism.

Trent vents ( what's he been eating? ).

Trent Lott talked tough, but was a real cream puff. Acting more like a diplomat then a legislator, Lott failed to stand up for the Senate conservatives ( except when commenting about homosexuality ). When killing campaign finance reform legislation, he failed to loudly point out the exceptions that would been afforded to the labor unions. In regards to the failed tobacco bill, he didn't point out the Democrat pork being inserted as amendments. He didn't make enough noise, when Clinton vetoed a number of education bills. The list goes on. ( Crow farts? )

Surrender Terms?

All three caved in on the pork-filled, social security trust fund spending, budget agreement! The Republicans did act like the minority party, in giving the President everything he wanted. They even left the DNC with some great talking points to use against the Republicans in Congress. Sure, they could claim that the money was spent in a manner that was acceptable to the majority ( block grants to the states ), but what happened to tax cuts and/or saving the social security trust fund, instead of raping it to claim a balanced budget. Take a look in the mirror guys; is that a donkey or an elephant tatooed on your forehead?

Steve Largent would make a good majority leader. Will Bob Livingston challenge the amphibian? Will Trent get bent?

- Bongo ( The vampire umpire? )