Congressman, Cowboys make state endure Texas boo-hoo step

Texas gets its fair amount of stick from the rest of the country for being, well, Texas. That it is not why are here, though.

In fact, we send our condolences to Texas for having to endure two pieces of "Oh, will you just shut your cakehole?" news in the past couple of days.

And no, Mike Leach isn't involved with either of them.

The first is Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican congressman from Arlington, who has taken Barack Obama's advice to heart and decided to introduce a bill abolishing the Bowl Championship System.

The second is the third-grade class of P.S. 97, otherwise known as the Dallas Cowboys. But we'll get back to them in a minute.

Barton, who we can only presume is your standard political attention-getter, is also the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Commission, so it's not like he doesn't have actual work to do.

His focus has turned to the foul injustices of the BCS because, we would be willing to bet, he isn't Rep. Joe Barton, Republican from Oklahoma, Florida or really any other state in the union. He is fighting the power that forced Texas from the title game because he is serving his constituents, who apparently don't want him to do any actual work either.

Basically, he wants the system changed to a playoff, in part because Barry The Usually Wise shot off his bazoo and said he wants an eight-team playoff system, but mostly because Barton is mollifying his voters and donors. In addition, one of his two co-sponsors is Texas Republican Michael McCaul, from --- wait for it -- Austin!

The other is Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, but Illinois has enough problems without having its politicians thinking that the BCS screwed Northwestern.

The point here is ... well, to get morons like us to type their names, and it has worked as far as it goes. But in terms of helping the downtrodden or put-upon, this is actually pretty stupid.

Not because the BCS is somehow noble as it is, because it isn't. But it isn't the kind of thing that rises to the level of "God, where's the government when we need it?" Indeed, the fact that two of the sponsors are from Texas, the most aggrieved state, tells you how seriously we ought to take it -- which is basically not at all.

On the other hand, if any of the sponsors were from Florida or Oklahoma, we'd be more willing to entertain their thoughts. As it is, we'll just assume they're standard-issue gasbags and let it go at that.

But they're nothing like the Cowboys, who are now so deep into their pitiful sniveling about Terrell Owens' spatlet with Tony Romo, Jason Witten and Jason Garrett that we can only hope they turn it into something enduringly debilitating for the franchise.