This in effect was what Senator Arroyo told Senator Ping Lacson in a privilege speech last Tuesday refuting the latter’s furious allegation of corruption in his so-called "Road to Nowhere" expose speech the other week as "false and a dud."

Lacson had insinuated that Senate President Manny Villar stood to gain from that expansion of the C-5 project linking Metro Manila to Parañaque, Las Piñas and all the way to Cavite, home province of Lacson.

Joker – known for his campaign slogan warning "Kung Bad Ka, Lagot Ka!" – wagged his finger at Lacson for his contumacious behavior that "insults the intelligence of the senators" with his bogus charge, and then lectured the Cavite senator: "We must be careful with our words. Be prudent but not careless!"

Arroyo probably had in mind the traditional practice in Senate deliberations for all its members to observe formal politeness or decorousness in intense, and even passionate, discussions over burning issues, such as the one brought up by Lacson.

What prompted Arroyo was Lacson’s attempt to revive an over a decade-old feud between Arroyo, and Villar when they were vying for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives.

"Stick to the core of the issue," Joker told Ping: "Prove that it was tainted by corruption… We should zero in on what you started about the ‘double entry’ in the budget… Don’t run away from that!

Lacson, Arroyo pointed out, "is sidestepping the issue by diverting the battle to another stage." He must be able to prove that there was an anomaly and that the Senate was part of the "corruption," Arroyo emphasized.

And, at this point, Senator Arroyo started tearing down Lacson’s allegation to shreds. He demonstrated, through a power-point presentation, that the first P200-million for the expansion of the C-5 project, originally proposed by Malacañang, was actually for a flyover in Sucat that would link the Parañaque portion to Las Piñas, while the second P200-million inserted by the Senate was supposed to go to the construction of a second flyover linking Parañaque to the Coastal Road to Las Piñas. The first P200-million has already been disbursed, but the second amount was not!

Not only this, Arroyo concluded, congressmen and mayors are supporting the project that would benefit the people of Metro Manila’s towns and cities all the way to Cavite, while Lacson is opposing progress in Cavite, where he is from, by his "lonely voice."

In short, Ping Lacson’s "Road to Nowhere" expose was bogus and all blather, or, in the words of one political commenter of old, was "full of sound and fury signifying nothing!"

***

Oh, incidentally, all this brouhaha in the august halls of the Senate brings to mind the name of Solon, who was one of the "Seven Wise Men" in ancient Greece. He implemented reforms in Athenian law.

His name has been used generically to refer to any wise statesman since 1625. And since then the term became especially popular in democratic nations and its meaning was extended to include any member of a lawmaking body, wise or not.

In contemporary times, however, the word is sometimes used ironically for a legislator who displays a marked lack of wisdom rather than a profusion of it.

I wonder who of all the present senators could be classified as wise and skillful lawmaker? Would the kind reader be able to count at least five of them?

***

Why are Gloria Arroyo’s Malacañang’s mouthpieces and image-fixers frantically defending her latest trip to New York? This time, they piously intoned, she’s on a very important mission not just addressing the UN General Assembly, but also meeting American corporate bigwigs as well as heads of other states.

Were they scared that Gloria’s globetrotting, like all her innumerable trips, would be criticized by the Filipino people as one more example of indulgence, self-satisfaction , pomposity and waste of taxpayers’ money in these times of tottering economies here and the United States and the rest of the world?

***

As the race to the White House approaches the finish line, the two presidential aspirants, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, are now running neck and neck. And many political strategists and pundits in the media establishment are now speculating on the possibility of a tie and that it could be a repeat of the Florida debacle in the election year of 2004. But this time, they fear, it could be far worse than that traumatic event.

If it happens, that is, a tie in the Electoral College of 269 to 269, those familiar with the U.S. electoral system say, there’ll be a major constitutional crisis. The election is thrown to Congress, and under the Constitution, it’ll be the outgoing, not the incoming Congress. Then there’ll be voting with each of the 50 states getting a single vote.

And, with the Democratic majority in 27 House delegations, Barack Obama would presumably become President, unless some Democrats decide to vote according to their states’ presidential vote.

The Senate, meanwhile, chooses the Vice President. If Senator Joe Liebermann votes for Sarah Palin, Dick Cheny, presiding the Senate proceedings as outgoing vice president, would cast a tie-breaking vote for her, then Sarah Palin would be Barack Obama’s vice president. That is, if the House does not deadlock past Inauguration Day, leaving Palin as Acting President. But, if they both deadlock, then say hello to Acting President Pelosi.

It’s a scary scenario. But they say the only hope is that the electors of the Electoral College would solve the problem, before Congress had a chance to drag the country through a national trauma, by switching sides to vote for the candidate who won more popular votes!

Such a traumatic event, many political observers have pointed out, should now make Americans, especially the lawmakers, realize the disadvantages of the Electoral College system and the need for reforms of the presidential election process, like deciding the winner by national popular vote!