Oh, to be given the gift of hindsight - or better yet, Time Travel. Well . . .the next best thing at the moment is a drift back to 1995, the infamous "Contract With America" and the dubious Newt Gingrich.

How all the posturing, promises and pretty words came to nothing. How the irony creeps in. How all the talk of Bipartisanship seemed, at the time like such a feel-good concept to the Republicans, now is treated like anathema - since the shoe fell on the other foot. How the lofty proclamations and buzz-words of de-regulation sounded so good to the Republican Majority Congress, but were ultimately disastrous for the rest of the country. How Gingrich falsely evoked the spirit of FDR and the New Deal. How it all somehow rang just a little hollow. And in retrospect, how it all failed.

"After all . . .the purpose of changing government is to improve the lives of our citizens, to strengthen the future of our children, to make our neighborhoods safe and to build a better country. Government is not the end, it's the means . . . . ."