Quote of the Day (Mary McCarthy, on the ‘Illiterate Hacks’ in Congress)

“The American, if he has a spark of national feeling, will be humiliated by the very prospect of a foreigner's visit to Congress — these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches, hypocritical, unctuous and slovenly, are spotted also with the gravy of political patronage, these persons are a reflection on the democratic process rather than of it; they expose it in its underwear.”—American novelist, memoirist and essayist Mary McCarthy (1912-1989), "America the Beautiful," Commentary, September 1947