It's howdy doody time.

• Author: Douglas, Susan
• Position: Political mud-slinging gets too much news coverage - Pundit Watch - Column

One Senator, in a flawless imitation of a jackass, sang "Old MacDonald" on the Senate floor, much to the delight of the television cameras. Another, in response, made jokes about pig poop. The minority leader, eschewing the barnyard motif, preferred to pretend he was Darth Vader, dispatching death rays from the dark side.

This was what the news media presented as the "debate" over the crime bill.

All this dramatic play may have made for entertaining television and great headlines, but a lot of Americans weren't amused--or even entertained. They longed for a shillelagh and a woodshed. Having their own kids out of school for nearly three months, the adults of the land were a bit weary of bathroom humor, nursery rhymes, cartoon characters, tantrums, and playground fights.

But not Congress, and certainly not the news media.

Which leads us to one of the big stories of the month: the disgust of the American people with what is euphemistically called "the political process" in this country. "I'm sick of the whole system," an auto worker told The New York Times in a front-page story titled VOTERS CAN'T FIND THE HUMOR IN CAPITAL'S PARTISAN GAMES. In ANGER FROM THE GRASS ROOTS, Time magazine quoted a truck driver's assessment of Congress: "That place has become a joke."

The McLaughlin Group and This Week with David Brinkley devoted entire shows to public anger with the District of Columbia. Cokie Roberts spoke for many of us as she grilled Haley Barbour of the Republican National Committee and Tony Coelho of the Democratic National Committee about the petulant partisanship and gridlock affecting Congress.

As the bickering escalated--"He started it"--"No, he started it"--it was all Roberts could do not to give them a time out and lock their toys (and mouths) in the basement. "This is exactly the kind of conversation people hate," she interrupted, with appropriate maternal disgust, as we watched these spin-doctors-quapreschoolers blaming each other for the huge mess and black eyes in the playground.

In an incisive column for The Atlantic Monthly, Steven Stark notes how much of popular culture, from The McLaughlin Group to Seinfeld, "strongly echoes the world of boys in early adolescence, ages eleven to fifteen." And then Stark gives plenty of examples to back up his point. But in some cases, he is too generous. The age-range is more like two-and-a-half to six.

While the news media and the pundits themselves are having fun ridiculing the rug rats in our...