text: I'm glad Sr. Chittiser laid the blame for the abandonment of the very idea of political consensus squarely at the feet of Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert for the simple reason that those two deserve it. Since their time Republicans in Congress have only intensified their recalcitrance, intransigence, and obstructionism, culminating in the nadir of Mitch McConnell's completely unprecedented refusal to hold hearings on a Democratic president's lawful nominee for Supreme Court justice. That was when the final fig leaf of Republican respect for the rule of law fell off, revealing the ugly, baldfaced partisanship of the modern Republican party. The current strain of Democratic opposition is, as always, pathetically reactive and based almost entirely on irreconcilable policy-based differences with the Republicans' brand of social Darwinism. The two are not alike. It is refreshing to hear a prominent Catholic voice lay blame for our current state of political dysfunction where it belongs.