The TV program, “The Walking Dead” is the highest rated TV program about zombies. As scary as that program might be, there are other zombies that could make your life miserable. I am talking about the Zombie Congress.

In the past, we described a Congress after the elections as a “lame duck Congress.” The term was coined centuries ago to refer to a stockbroker who defaulted on his debts. A lame duck cannot keep up with the flock and is an easy target for a predator.

As descriptive as the name might have been, I prefer the name “Zombie Congress” given by columnists like George Will. These Zombie legislators wander the halls of Congress looking for mischief. The “undead” in this case no longer have to represent their constituents because they were defeated at the polls. So they feel free to pass all sorts of bills that harm our country.

Jim DeMint reminds us in a recent column about all the damage that has been done by previous sessions of the Zombie Congress. While Americans were focused on the holidays “Obamacare was rammed through the Senate on Christmas Eve in 2009.” Other Zombie Congress sessions gave us a “bailout, debt limit increases, big spending bills, special interest tax breaks, and even an ill-advised arms treaty with Russia.”

Until the last few decades, the threat of a lame duck Congress or a Zombie Congress was not too great. Defeated members of Congress would shuffle home and consider what their next job might be. Today, they stick around and can do significant damage to the country. That is why I think we should be even more vigilant during these next two months.

The leaders in Congress should send the zombies home, but we know that won’t happen. So we will have to pay attention to Congress during this holiday season or else be surprised and disappointed about the bills that are passed while we are focused on food, family, and football.