The Bennifer of benefits. If the debut of the Medicare drug discount cards were a movie, it would be “Gigli”: a colossal letdown after months of hype.

The vaunted cards that were to alleviate the high cost of prescription drugs for seniors have been met with a collective shrug. The American Association of Retired Persons mailed out 26,000 enrollment kits and got 400 responses.

Talk about a box-office bomb. At least with Ben Affleck’s and Jennifer Lopez’s movie, the pain was over in two hours. It takes several days to wade through the process of acquiring a drug discount card. The Web site is difficult to navigate, especially for seniors who are unfamiliar with computers in the first place. The number of choices is overwhelming. The actual discounts may not be as low as advertised, owing to miscommunication and the rapid rise in prescription drug costs. And fraudulent cards have begun to appear, taking advantage of the system’s complexity.

Congress owes seniors a sequel that takes the audience seriously.

Role reversal for GOP. Seasoned Democrats love to quote Will Rogers’ boast that he belonged to no organized political party – he was a Democrat.

Accordingly, the party has been renowned for squabbling in public, while rival Republicans maintained discipline in ranks, always showing a united face.

So united, that it backfired on the Washington state Republican Party during its state convention over the weekend in Bellevue.

The issue? Whether Reed Davis, a Seattle-area college professor and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, should be able to address the convention and air his criticism of Spokane Congressman George Nethercutt. Nethercutt is the party leadership’s favorite in the race to challenge Democratic Sen. Patty Murray in November. Voters will choose between Davis and Nethercutt in the Sept. 21 primary election.

Before the convention, Davis backers waged an unsuccessful online campaign for his right to speak. On Friday, the struggle flared up early in the convention. Again it failed. That night, the Davis campaign hosted a “unity dinner,” at which Davis delivered his remarks. All other Republican candidates were invited to speak too, by the way.

Will Rogers would have been impressed.