> Party-dominated nominating processes, soft money, congressional seniority, closed-door negotiations, pork-barrel spending—put each practice under a microscope

> Party-dominated nominating processes, soft money, congressional seniority, closed-door negotiations, pork-barrel spending—put each practice under a microscope in isolation, and it seems an unsavory way of doing political business. But sweep them all away, and one finds that business is not getting done at all. I couldn't agree more with the first sentence. The second seems to make sense, but I'm not 100% convinced yet. As a non-American, I'd be interested in hearing what other US citizens have to say about that?