AND THE WINNER AMONG IOWA REPUBLICANS... NONE OF THE ABOVE, JUST LIKE EVERYWHERE ELSE

Every time pollsters include "none of the above" when they ask Republican voters who they prefer, "none of the above" beats Giuliani, beats Romney, beats Thompson, beats McCain, beats each and every one of what Newt referred to as the "pathetic bunch of pygmies." This morning's Washington Post brings it down to Iowa voters who are less than thrilled by the pygmies. And support for the early front-runner, Flip Flop Mitt, is "soft and shallow."

As the Republican presidential candidates gather this morning in Des Moines for their fourth debate, Iowa GOP voters are expressing limited enthusiasm for the field of current and potential aspirants, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Their views appear to be a microcosm of GOP sentiment across the country and point to a wide open battle for the nomination.

...Just 19 percent of likely GOP caucus attendees said they were "very satisfied" with the field of candidates-- far below satisfaction levels among Iowa Democrats-- and poll respondents were badly fractured when asked to rate the candidates on political and personal attributes.

Most Iowa Democratic activists (53%) say they are "very satisfied" with the Democratic field. Only one out of five Republican activists is foolish enough to have fallen for the pathetic pygmies. But that can change. If George W. Bush can be pushed off the front pages and the pygmies can get people to stop identifying the GOP with the Bush Regime and the rubber stamp members of Congress, they can appeal to what people really look to the GOP for: hatred and bigotry.

An anti-immigration backlash has taken hold among Republicans in the Capitol, led in some cases by the staunchest supporters-- Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina-- of the failed Senate bill derided by many as amnesty.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat, fended off GOP efforts Friday to block what in normal times would be noncontroversial "private bills" to remedy the most compelling individual plights of a handful of illegal immigrants caught in the labyrinth of immigration law.

Late Thursday night, Republicans walked out of a House vote to protest what they said was an attempt by Democrats to reverse a GOP win on a motion to deny benefits to illegal immigrants in an agriculture spending bill.

In the next few months expect Republicans to claim all the tolerance for bipartisan and humane immigration reform to be just something the Democrats wanted to do and Bush went along with. Even those who supported it, will back away in a party-wide attempt to appeal to something that always works for the right: racism, nativism, bigotry, xenophobia, fear of the other. And, although Flip Flop Mitt is nothing at all if not a perfect cipher with no values, no principles and a blank inner core, any of the pygmies will do just fine in this role.