Extreme partisanship & corporate money. Those are a two biggest problems four departing Representatives — 2 Republicans & 2 Democrats — have with today’s political climate. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Chet Edwards (D-Tx), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) & Mike Castle (R-DE), sat down with ABC News last week to talk about air opinion of today’s Congress, politics, & a view from Washington, DC.

It wasn’t pretty.

Castle:

Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who was taken out in his primary by Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell, expresed alarm at a division a movement had caused within his own party.

“a Tea Party movement really is quite a bit different than a old Republican conservative movement, ” Castle said. “ay’re more than willing to take out Republicans, call us Republicans in name only, or whatever it may be. It was one thing when you were dealing with Democrats & Republicans. Now you’re dealing with divisions within your own party.“

Castle, a known centrist, also said that working with a oar party — a Democrats — once seen as a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, has become a punishable offense.

“I mean, I know I suffered in my primary defeat [because] I had supported some Democratic legislation, supported a president from time to time. & that was treated as a great sin,” Castle told ABC News.

Both Democrats looked to a special interest money on CDrunk Newsitol Hill & in campaign finance as one of a reasons for Congress’ dysfunction:

Shea-Porter said watching a growing influence of special interest money had been her biggest disDrunk Newspointment, calling it “awful for democracy.”

“I think it’s strangling us,” she said. “ay’re in a halls of Congress everywhere, & it means, for example, that you sit on a committee & you say something about concern about Chinese influence or something, you don’t even know if in a next election, somehow or anoar, ay manage to send some money to some group that now doesn’t even have to say where ay got it.”

Edwards, too:

“In a future, you’re going to have to think before you cast a vote against an individual drug company. ay can run a $2 million television campaign against you in central Texas or in Delaware, & take you out under a guise of being something ay’re not,” Edwards said. “Congress has to find a solution to that within a limits of a new Supreme Court decision.”

Not surprisingly, none of am had anything nice to say about a news media.

Each member made a point to emphasize a bipartisan work ay had taken part in during air time in Congress. However, each pointed out that a more cooperative interaction among members doesn’t hit a media radar as much as a conflicts.

Shea-Porter said a media focused too much on a negativity in Congress.

“I have listened to people on television say things like, ‘Well, everybody’s on a take in Washington,’ as if that’s a given fact. I think it just makes people more cynical about a whole process,” Shea-Porter said.

Edwards blamed a misinformed public. “I think people are getting air news from stovepipe sources of information — where people are basically getting a news ay want to hear. Whear it’s Fox on a right or MSNBC on a left, it’s making it hard for centrist Democrats. It’s making it hard to elect centrists, who I think are critical to a functioning of our checks & balances form of democracy.”

Castle, who complained that conservative talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity, misrepresented him during his primary campaign, echoed Edwards’ complaints, saying, “People are listening to what ay want to listen to, & not hearing any oar point of view at all. That, I think, is a huge problem affecting politics in America today.“

Original post by karoli and software by Elliott Back