Laming the ducks

In Bluffton, there were always rumors--call them non-urban legends--about the ducks in the Riley Creek bed. "Duckies!" Lou, Kari, and I said as we crossed Adams bridge outside Ropp. Indeed, the duckies were cute, and unlike a lot of wild fowl, had actual personalities.
There were the "gang-raping duck" stories, the "duck-eating-duckling" stories, the dive-bombing ducks, the loud ducks that got up way before any of us, and the ducks that skated gracefuly across a late frosting-over of the creek. Yippee for nature.
But no where did we have lame ducks. Lame squirrels, yes (insert anecdote about the Satanic Squirrel here). But the ducks always seemed to have agency. Well, as much agency as a duck needs, anyway. They never looked hungry, they never looked lonely; mostly, they just looked content.
According to the OED online, the phrase "lame duck" originally was a Stock Exchange slang term for someone who couldn't pay his or her (okay, "his") debts. Elsehwhere,

lame duck, (a) (see DUCK n.1 9); (b) U.S. Politics, an office-holder who is not, or cannot be, re-elected; spec. (before 1933), a defeated member in the short session of Congress after a November election; also attrib.; (c) a ship that is damaged, esp. one left without a means of propulsion; (d) an industry, commercial firm, etc., that cannot survive without financial help, esp. by means of a government subsidy; hence as v. trans. (rare), to help (a disabled person); to lame-duck it: to travel with difficulty; to come by the lame post: (of news, etc.) to be behind time.

Bush is now a "lame duck" president because he has little to no hope of passing anything through the "New" Congress. But, as analysts point out, this time, the lameness is actually dangerous: with this stalemate, little will be done to change the situation in Iraq quickly, leaving hundreds of soldiers and officers in highly volatile areas. And there are two years to go to the '08 elections, despite all the press about them.

Will we sit for two years in limbo? Or will McCain's call for a 'rational' GOP be heard? With everyone clammoring to be called "centrist" will any good be done? Just because it's the middle position does not make it the right one (contrary to Aristotelean philosophy).

Someone should remind Jon Stewart of that...