The United States Senate was in a furor last Friday over Senator William Frist's (R-TN) presentation. The collective senators' chaotic state was not caused by a controversial topic such as pro-death or feeding the homeless to the hungry, nor was it caused by undisclosed accusations of Frist's misdoings by undisclosed opponents. What turned the Senate on its head was Sen. Frist's overly complex visual aid.

The chart in question, entitled "How the Money Flows (Big Picture)", was apparently too big of a picture for the entirety of the Senate to grasp. Six colors, multiple font sizes and colors, and a tangled web of arrows between over half a dozen triangles combined to form a visual beyond the grasp of the average citizen, let alone the elected officials chosen to represent the average citizen.

Frist claims he used the chart to "provide a visual clarification of the bill [he] was proposing." He states that "at no time did [he] intend to confuse an entire house of Congress, nor did [he] think the oversized poster was hard to follow, provided [his] fellow senators were listening to what [he] was saying."

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) called the chart "plumb confusing and a devil to reckon," later noting that he was not a New Hampshire hillbilly, despite his arcane vocabulary and the repetition of consonants no less than twice in his name. His sentiments were shared by many Congressmen, Republican, Democrat, and hillbilly alike.

Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) once again confirmed that "yes, that is [his] real name, and no, it is not pronounced 'crap-o'" before agreeing that "How the Money Flows (Big Picture)" was indeed far more confusing than necessary for a standard meeting of the Senate.

Republican minority leader Strom Thurmond (R-SC) drooled when asked his opinion on this visual aid scandal.

In a related story, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) denied rumors that she would later accept the chart as a gift, noting that it "clashed with the grand piano, the hand-crafted Persian rug, the Picasso, the stuffed bald eagle, and the nuclear warhead."