Congress has always had its share of members with extreme viewpoints on both the left and the right–especially in the House of Representatives. The difference used to be in the Senate, where even after tough talk in the press, the “grown ups” could be counted on to retreat behind closed doors and craft a bipartisan solution to either avoid disaster or move the nation forward. Some examples of Senate leaders from the past include Bob Dole, George Mitchell, Howard Baker and Robert Byrd. Sure, they cared about party, but there was no question that they would do their best to keep our republic safe from harm.

Where are the “grown ups” in the Senate today? Apparently nowhere to be found.  Impending disaster is now a tool that can be used to meet party objectives, no matter the effect on the country.

After the recent debt ceiling crisis where both the Speaker of the House and Senate Minority leader refused to raise the debt ceiling without cuts in government spending,  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto:

“It set the template for the future. In the future, Neil, no president — in the near future, maybe in the distant future — is going to be able to get the debt ceiling increased without a re-ignition of the same discussion of how do we cut spending and get America headed in the right direction. I expect the next president, whoever that is, is going to be asking us to raise the debt ceiling again in 2013, so we’ll be doing it all over.”

Standard & Poor’s unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt from AAA to AA+ demonstrates that our entire country is now paying the price for  this type of false leadership. Will the grown ups in Congress please stand up now? It’s time for leaders who care more about country than political party.