To paraphrase an old saying, you can learn a lot about a man by seeing how he acts when no one is paying attention. A corollary to this works for Congressmen. In any given year there are, at most, three or four “big” issues that dominate Congressional debate and culminate in dramatic floor votes that will define future reelection campaigns. For example, the current Congress can be distilled to essentially four votes; stimulus, cap and trade, Obamacare and the bank bailout. The next Congress will likely be defined by tax policy, federal spending and repeal of parts of Obamacare and the banking bill.

How a Congressman votes on these “big” issues will tell you a lot about his basic philosophy of government. But, it is an imperfect snapshot. The overwhelming majority of lawmakers will line up with their parties on the “big” votes. These few votes don’t tell you a lot about the individual lawmaker’s comprehensive philosophy nor their specific views on the powers and limitations of their office. For that, you have to look at their work on the thousands of bills that wind their way through the legislative process every year and, more importantly, their own specific legislative proposals.  In other words, we have to look at the work they do when no one else is looking.

It is on this that the bids of both Rep. Joe Barton and Rep. Fred Upton to chair the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee fail. Each has promoted specific and personal legislative proposals which are impossible to square with any belief in restrained, limited government. Worse, their initiatives betray the absence of what is perhaps the most important quality in a lawmaker, humility. Not personal humility, but rather an appreciation that there are limits to what Congress or the federal government can or should do. Both Barton and Upton seem convinced that absolutely every problem, perceived problem or general annoyance can, and should, be addressed by Congress.

This should disqualify them from the Chairman’s gavel. Should either of them be entrusted by their colleagues with the gavel, then the meaning of the midterms will be greatly diminished. The great tea party wave will have finally crashed on the rocks of the go-along-get-along DC GOP establishment.

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One year ago this month, I opined about taxpayers footing the bill for several college football bowl games.  I decided to revisit the college football bowl scene and find out who’s sponsoring this year’s post-season gridiron clashes.

Perhaps most surprising among my findings is the fact that a UAW-General Motors entity, the UAW-General Motors Human Resources, is listed here as a sponsor, alongside Ford and a few other organizations, of the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl (formerly known as the Motor City Bowl) to be played at Ford Field in Detroit Dec. 26.

This sponsorship deal makes me wonder how many football fans of the matchup between Marshall University and Ohio University will spend halftime visiting this sponsor’s exciting web site.

The Eagle Bank Bowl is set for Dec. 29 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., and appears to be back stronger than ever in 2009. The bowl’s “strength”– not found in the battle between UCLA and Temple — could be due to the fact that it’s title sponsor, Bethesda, Md.-based Eagle Bancorp Inc., received $38.2 million via the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to a Wall Street Journal report early this year. [Note: From the strange-but-true department, the name of the bank's chairman and chief executive officer is -- drumroll, please -- Ron Paul.]

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