Here’s something to think about.
“By the time I completed my second term, I had concluded that success in the Senate could be defined by getting a major bill passed every four years. It takes that long to develop an idea, prepare the public, marshal your support, and enact the law.” – Bill Bradley, U.S. Senator from New Jersey (1979-1997).
That quote is from Bradley’s book Time Present, Time Past, which you can pick up at Powell’s for a cool buck-fifty. Bradley liked to work on big problems like Third World debt, overhauling the tax code, and solving water disputes in the West. It seems almost quaint to read someone who thought you could actually use the U.S. Senate to solve problems.