"Are there really seventeen?" Alice asked.

"I have no idea," Birdbill said. "But ‘seventeen socialists’ is so much fun to say."

"Look at the deficit! Will this never end!" thundered Duck.

"We're 100% against government spending!" Mad Hannity cried.

"Except for big military contracts, in my state anyway" Duck Armie added. "Cutting useless military weapons systems is treason!"

"But didn’t you and the Republicans spend so much that the surplus became a deficit, under President Bush!" Alice asked.

"Shhh!" Bird O’Really warned. "We never say that name anymore."

"No and good riddance," Duck said. "We don’t need him. A Birdbill and a Hannity are worth two Bushes, I always say."

"But isn’t it true?"

"Not from where I’m sitting," Duck said. "You see, here in Washington it’s always feeding time, so there’s never a chance to clean away the tea things, and when we use up our cups and plates, we just move down a seat. Perhaps I was in Congress then but now I’m in a lobbyist seat. Let someone else deal with my old mess."