Mediation can't fix congressional gridlock

L. Michael Hager's suggestion ["How to end gridlock: Mediation," Washington Forum, June 18] that Congress employ mediators to overcome the partisan chasm proposed the proverbial Band-Aid for an unstoppable hemorrhage. While I strongly believe in mediation as a profoundly useful tool in problem-solving, how can it overcome the 24/7 quest for campaign funds needed for political survival on Capitol Hill? These funds come from increasingly polarized sources with steel strings attached.

Until we acknowledge that the system is so broken that it will implode on incumbents racing like elite hamsters on the reelection wheel, we cannot heal the body politic with good intentions and technical fixes. Even if the electorate routs the incumbent rascals in November, their replacements will find no solutions if they climb on the same monotonous wheel running the same broken system.

Robert E. Honig, Potomac