If we had any guts, we would punish Russia by sending McCain and Boehner to live in Russia! It would be a win/win because they would fit right in!
I think a win-win scenario would be if we sent the "abolish the 17th amendment" types to Russia where they can live out their idealized fantasy world (Russia's Senate consists entirely of locally appointed political hacks who rubber stamp whatever United Russia/Putin wants, and cannot be held accountable by the people). In exchange, we'll take all the pro-freedom Russians who oppose big government socialist policies.
Their argument about corrupt state legislatures is always "if you don't like your state legislature, MOVE to a different state instead of CHOOSING to live in a corrupt hellhole", so we can throw it right back at them and let them MOVE to a country that has a pre-17th amendment type system that's more to their liking than having to deal with an elected Senate where they can vote out John McCain and Mary Landrieu.
Toche' :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_Council_%28Russia
Unlike the State Duma and the provincial legislatures throughout Russia, the Council is not directly elected, but instead chosen by territorial politicians, resembling in some respects to the structure of the U.S. Senate prior to the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The only exclusion was the first Federation council (1994–1996), which was elected on December 12, 1993. Critics to the Federation Council stress that the upper house is an inherently undemocratic body made for regional elites, with little say from the Russian people. Since the reforms advocated and passed by President Putin in 2000, critics have also charged that the Council resembles more of a rubber stamp body for the Kremlin than an independent legislative body. Many senators, including Council Chairman Sergey Mironov, are viewed as close allies of Putin and the United Russia party, despite rules which explicitly spell out that political factions are not allowed. Since Mironov’s rise in the Council in 2002, the Kremlin’s position on impending legislation is closely communicated to and coordinated with the Chairman and the committee and commission chairs. This top-down approach has meant that the Council votes with extreme efficiency, backing Kremlin positions on legislation nearly all of the time.