Like all of you, I pop all over the board from one thread to another and sometimes the thoughts from one thread cross over to other threads. I get some free flow ideas going occasionally from my sputtering gray cells. So here is a somewhat silly idea to throw at you which amuses me.

I had just finished reading one of Alan Wood's slam dunk jabs at our government where he referred to our administration being "Twits". The next thread I read had a discussion where a reference was made to Congressman Rangel, who I have long considered to be one of the many embarrassments to our country. I immediately was calling him a twit in my mind. He exemplified a political twit ever there ever has been one. Then I was going over my list of other twits in Washington. Some are more twittyish than others I decided.

Hey ! Maybe there should be a twit index ! We could put a federal elected up on the board and give twit ratings. The scale would be 1 to 100. Average the scores and we would have a AmericasDebate Twit Rating for that federal official.

It would be a handy index. Say you hear Rangel want to have a draft. Someone asks why? You can refer to the AmericasDebate Twit Rating and say, " He has a Twit Rating of 96, need you know more?". Then we can all move on to chew upon a subject where the idea behind it was not from some career politician who does not have much more thought than which cause can he use to sell himself as being a man who cares.

Knowing the Twit Rating of the politicians proposing policy will really help to get our discussions going with the proper perspective when those ideas are put on the board for discussion.

Of course, I am proposing this on this section as we independents know we are, for all intents and purposes, the most capable of giving valid Twit Ratings due to our great insight and lack of (I am quoting MadMax) Bahhhh baaahhhh baaahhh! factor.

Gray Seal - you rock. That is such a cool idea. Although the rules of the forum say anyone who has declared they are a member of a major party can't post here (this is supposed to be for independant/third-party members ONLY).

Would you be interested in opening up a similar thread in the General Political Debate Category and/or moving this one there?

Or as an alternative, (if you want to get technical and do averages, because I won't ). You could open threads like this in Republican and Democrat debate and average out the scores (you could even "weigh" them to consider the slant that will come from the Republican and Democrat thread). Too technical?

Jaime, you are encouraging me. Best be careful.

On the more serious side, I think this idea might be technically difficult. You start adding up the Senators, Representatives, and Executive offices together and have a poll for each of them and it will be a database Mike will whack me over the head with and it would hurt.

Do I think it would be amusing and possibly constructive to have it? Yep. Especially if we compared the Twit Rating between the three groups of Democrats, Republicans, and others. Arguing Twit Ratings would get to the heart of what we think, me thinks. I will concede judgement on the practicality of such a project to our God of AmericasDebate, Mike. It is nice to know the Goddess is amused.

Maybe, to start, it could be limited to majority and minority leadership in both houses plus the heads of a few key committees - and, of course, some of the executive - and Supreme Court Justices. Aargh - there really isn't much of a "shortlist" in American politics, is there?

Nevertheless, I think it's an excellent idea! I would maybe recommend a 1 - 10 rating scale (it could be converted to a 1 - 100 scale when working out averages). Otherwise, I could see myself spending hours trying to decide if Tom DeLay is a 97 or a 96 - or should he be a 98? And Joe Lieberman - more 88 or 89?? Colin Powell is a definite 24 - or should that be 23???

I agree with Wertz, a 1-10 rating would be better for some us more feeble minded who can't count too high

It's a great idea, I'm already thinking of twits as I watch the news.

Hillary-8, Lott-8, Jesse Jackson-9, JC Watts-2,Gephardt-5, Daschle-8, Walter Williams-1,Bush-4, Farrakhan-10

Er, Hugo - I think the 10 is supposed to be the most twittish, not the least.

Wertz, I was going to give you a 7, but I knew you would counter by giving myself an 8 or higher.

Nah - I wouldn't give you more than a 7 - you do have your moments of lucidity.