Try replacing your 
.menu_section li a CSS block with these two, so that <a> isn't treated as yet another block.
	
	
	
		Code:
	
	
		.menu_section li {
	display: block;
	padding: 5px;
	background-color: #cfcfcf;
	margin: 0 0 1px 0;
}
.menu_section li a {
	color: #fff;
	text-decoration: none;
}
	 
 
(by the way, this change is tested.)
[ edit: if you really really wanted the text in the .description text to be raised, add a smaller line-height (say, 1em) to the .description section ]