On "The Situation Room" today, we asked viewers the following questions, and here are some of our favorite responses that we didn't get to read on air:
What will be the legacy of the 109th Congress?
This do-nothing Congress' only legacy will be that it did nothing, and was proud of it. They used time and money to feather their own nests, while forgetting about the people who put, and kept, them there. Good riddance to bad garbage, I say!
Rose, Miami, FloridaDon't you have to do something before you can have a legacy?
Paul, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
What will be the legacy of the 109th Congress? Pick one: greed, corruption, procrastination, fiscal irresponsibility, earmarks. Or all, as I do.
Bernie, Lowell, MassachusettsThey'll have left us with the knowledge that some day you too can grow up to work under 100 days out of the year and screw up the lives of millions of people.
Brett, Wapakoneta, OhioShould the business ties of Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates play a role in his confirmation hearings?
Of course it should. If he is involved in any of these corporations that keep telling us they don't know what they did with billions of our tax dollars while there was no armor on Humvees, no personal body armor, while we sent care packages from the States, I say we find someone who didn't glut themselves on our largesse over the corpses of our casualties.
Tom, Wilton, MaineIt should play a role, but Gates' role in the Iran-Contra Affair and other shady CIA dealings during the 1980s should play even more prominent ones.
Jared, Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaThat's all the administration needs, another Dick Cheney whose ties to the oil companies and Halliburton are well documented. Washington is filled with personal interest execs who are ready to thank those who hired them in exchange for more giveaways.
Al, Niagara Falls, New York
Big business has been running our government for the better part of 35 years now. Do you really think the prudent selection of one Cabinet-level department head is going to drastically alter that arrangement one way or another? You can keep on bellowing about the symptoms of what ails us, Jack; that will not solve the root of these problems though.
Thomas, Surfside, Florida
New York Times columnist Frank Rich says President Bush is "untethered from reality." Do you agree?
I expect Bush to maintain his detachment from reality bit as long as he's in office. It has allowed him to escape accountability for too long. Now that the media has gotten its spine back, he may not be so lucky.
Shari, Fleetwood, Pennsylvania
Yes, I agree with Frank Rich. Bush is out of touch with reality. But then I have thought that for some time. In these dangerous times, it doesn't give one a lot of comfort to have an unstable person leading the country for the next two years.
Sue, West Hartford, Connecticut
This president has been out of touch with reality his entire life. He's been so pampered, he has no idea what the average American life is like, what it means to balance a checkbook or be responsible for your actions.
Gary, Cary, North Carolina
Hard to believe a newspaper as great and revered as the New York Times could be guilty of such a huge understatement!
Toni, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina