Incoming House Majority Leader Steney Hoyer announced a radical change in the schedule for next year- in what can clearly be seen as tantamount to an abusive foreman from the Dickensian era, Scrooge McHoyer has decreed that House members will have to start showing up for business on (gasp!) Mondays and Fridays.

The announcement of a 5-day work week- unseen in recent years- has outraged Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who explains the real motive behind the newly imposed sweatshop conditions:

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

Skipping the most obvious responses to this (In order: 1. The flight time from South Georgia to Washington, DC is, at most, three hours; 2. Rep. Kingston's family would be shocked to know DC also has places to live; 3. Slapping Rep. Kingston in the face), how telling is it of the outgoing Congress that instead of expressing shame for being among the laziest of public servants (despite a $165,000 salary) the response to being asked to work close to the the amount demanded of most hard-working Americans is outrage over how hard their jobs are?

Bonus points for this spin on the reason new leadership is making the schedules in the first place:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), one of the architects of the lighter workweek, put the best Republican face on Hoyer's new schedule.

"They've got a lot more freshmen then we do," he said of the Democrats. "That schedule will make it incredibly difficult for those freshmen to establish themselves in their districts. So we're all for it."

Which I guess is a nicer way of pointing out a lot more Democrats won seats this year than Republicans. Maybe wanting to "establish themselves" in their districts four days out of the week had something to do with that.