Ill will on the hill. Civility stretched thin in Congress. Rep. Scott points to Howard Dean for making inflammatory remarks.

The title of this post is from an article that Tom Baxter authored in the Thursday issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. To give you a feel for the article, it begins: "The atmosphere in Washington has been poisonous for a long time, but this year the trash-talking seems to have reached a new peak."

The article notes that Rep. David Scott is a member of a recently formed Center Aisle Caucus that consists of more than 40 Republican and Democratic House members who want to bring a more positive tone to a Congress grown testy with the lingering memory of the last election's attack ads and the echoes of partisan chatter on cable TV and talk radio.

The article also notes:

Scott singled out White House adviser Karl Rove, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) for adding to a rhetorical flame war he says has grown "off the charts."

Rove slammed liberals in a recent speech to a conservative group, saying they only want "to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Dean has described Republicans as "evil" and "brain-dead."

Durbin in the Senate compared U.S. treatment of detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Cuba, to the Nazis and Pol Pot, though unlike Rove or Dean, he later retracted and apologized for his comments.

The Center Aisle Caucus also has a pragmatic aim: to distance it members from a feared public backlash against the negativity on the Potomac.