This was the week that still is

THE WEEK has been anything but dull, what with the changing of the guard in the House of Representatives and a new crop of freshman peacocks saying how they intend to end Barack Obama's career in 2012. Although their optimism may be premature as polls show public support for Obama growing (13 pts. higher than Reagan's at mid-term) you can't blame the Republicans for wanting to stake out a claim on the White House before the public catches on to their odd ways.

For awhile the GOP narrative will be dominated by condemning job-killing ObamaCare, as some of the New Age philosophers warn us. There will be a lot of talk of death panels and apocalyptic your-grandmother- will-die-sooner end-of-days stuff, the sort of thing that is inspired by having millions more people covered by health insurance. Rep. Steve King, the rural Iowa Republican, even added the insightful thought that ObamaCare, in addition to being unconstitutional, also leads to dead infants turning up in trash cans. A word of caution: You can email King's office that he is one of the more prominent morons on Capitol Hill, but it will only support his contention that evil is rampant in the land.

The part I really enjoyed this week of pageantry was the reading of a laundered Constitution on the House floor that expurgated language reminding folks that it was hardly a perfect document when it came to assessing the value of blacks. The drama rose quickly, however, as a section was being read on the requirement that a person must be native- born to be eligible for the presidency.

That lit a fuse. A woman birther in the gallery shouted "Except Obama, except Obama! Help us, Jesus." Until that happens she may may have to first check with her lawyer, having been escorted from the gallery by police.

A couple of Republican congressmen, one being Pete Sessions of Texas, attended a fund-raiser instead of being sworn in. His cavalier attitude toward the Constitution caused a stir in the House, but was finally resolved somehow, as Sessions, one of the GOP's leading fund raisers, knew it would be.

All in all, the faithfully pledged public- spirited unveiling of the new congress recalled something that Al Capone once said, when his integrity was questioned: "Public service is my motto."