When Congress comes marching home again …

What will the ruling party's message be?

Well, here's an interesting account between the press and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer courtesy of the Washington Post:

"The happiness was short-lived, because Hoyer was soon answering questions about the party's 'death knell.' To defend the Democrats, the majority leader had to employ some inventive math. At one point, he erroneously added up quarterly growth rates, asserting that GDP had seen 'almost a 25 percent turnaround from negative to positive.' At another point, he made the impossible claim that from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, 'you lost 250 percent of the value of your stock portfolio.'

"It just doesn't add up. 'Your members are going to go home with no appropriations bills passed, no budget resolution, record deficits,' David Lightman of McClatchy News noted. 'How can they go home and say they did good jobs?'

"Hoyer said something about a '302(a) allocation' and 'statutory PAYGO.'

'We have a powerful message to send,' Hoyer said, then asked himself: 'And what is that message?'

The WashPo reporter answered for him: "That you named a lot of post offices?"

You can read the full story here. Take it with you next time you plan to get together with your congressional representative. Maybe you can get a post office named after you, too.