"model," indeed. Beyond the other criticisms of the deal itself, my beef is the deadwood that is the whole 18th Century "checks and balances" crap that keeps everything logjammed. In CARO's bio of LBJ, there is a whole chapter (in "Master of the Senate" describing the workings of Congress, the inter-locking committees, the rule by seniority, everything built in to keep things jammed. It takes somebody working up from the bottom like LBJ for 30 years to know the buttons to push and where the bodies are buried to get something done and there's no time for that anymore or nobody willing to do it. This is the reason CHEENEE and RUMSFELD were able to slap Shrub around and take over for themselves, because they had spent 20-30 yrs inside the bureaucracy and could warp policies and procedures to their will.
There is so much dead wood in what we profess to believe, and it can't/won't be fixed, so it will have to crumble on its own for something else to take its place.