By Ray Cardello for August 31, 2025, Season 32 / Post 32

If you were to go by the temperature and not the calendar, Summer ended weeks ago in Central Maine. With nighttime temps dropping into the 40s, the dog days of Summer took 2025 off. In a brilliant effort to further disrupt family life, the school year in the northeast started a whole week before Labor Day, which messes up the end of Summer, but gives teachers extra “workshop” days to catch up on work they cannot complete in a five-day week. Just call them extra days off and be done with it.

September 1 marks the return of Congress to Capitol Hill. Some may view that as a bad thing, as Congress does not waste our money when not in session. Anyway, they are back from recess, where some vacation, some travel abroad on our dime, some hold town hall meetings, some campaign, and some just disappear. Splitting our time and residences between New Hampshire and Maine, we have many members of Congress who impact our lives, though some we have no say in who they are or what they do. The eight members of Congress from the Granite and Pine Tree states are relatively insignificant, and, except for Maggie Hassan and her “Anti-Trump Lie-a-Day Tour,” they do little of note.

Nationally, two members of Congress stand out to me for what is good and bad about Congress and Washington politics. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana uses every day to sharpen his wit and, with down-home Southern common sense, lets us know what is right or wrong with our world through his eyes. I watch YouTube videos of Kennedy for entertainment as he eviscerates ill-prepared witnesses who come before his various committees. On the flip side is Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California. Possibly the most acerbic member of Congress, Mad Max spends her recess sharpening her tongue and aligning her broom as she prepares for her witch hunt of President Donald Trump. Trump has taken up permanent residence between Maxine’s ears, and she can think of nothing else than how to bring him down. At 87 years old, Maxine is the poster child for term limits. She has been in Congress since 1991, and her primary goal, beyond securing face time on the nightly news, was to make her daughter a millionaire by funneling money from campaign funds over the years.

Maxine came back over the weekend with a flurry, calling on the Trump cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the unfit Trump from office. Ordinarily, I would say we need to cut the octogenarian some slack, but not in this case. Maxine needs to be called out for the ultimate act of hypocrisy. Where was this call for the 25th for the last four years, as we had Joe Biden wandering aimlessly through his presidency, while someone with an auto-pen was in charge of the White House? Obviously, being unfit in her mind means someone with a different opinion than hers.

Kennedy is having a good old time mocking the likes of Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Brandon Johnson, and all of the politicians running our Blue cities and states into the ground. He doesn’t need to break into government office buildings or call for violence against his opponents like Maxine. He uses his eyes, mind, and tongue to see it and call it like it is. Did I mention that I do not watch videos of Maxine? She is not effective or entertaining.