Senate has failed to live up to expectation

The acrimonious debate on the division of revenue formula casts the Senate in bad light. It gives those who have little trust in the Senate’s ability reason to believe it is, indeed, superfluous. The nine postponements of a critical debate are reminiscent of US President Theodore Roosevelt's observation that, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer “present” or “not guilty”.

Elsewhere, when asked whether he prayed for senators, Edward Everett Hale, an American author-cum-historian replied: “No, I look at the senators and I pray for the country.” That is where we are as a country, held to ransom by leaders who have little regard for those who elected them. There is a general feeling that our Senate lacks bite; that, in fact, it doesn’t even have a bark left in it.