If You're Wondering When The Republican Party Will Get Back To Normal... This Is As Normal As It's Going To Be For Them For A Long Time

Defiant enabler monkeys give a standing ovation to one of their own as he heads off to prison

I just heard about McCain's humiliating return to his Senate office and how he just stared straight ahead and couldn't look anyone in the eye-- not well-wishers or even his own staff. Once in his office he found that the only visitors were Arizonans requesting the hottest ticket in town, passes for Barack Obama's inauguration.

I don't feel sorry for the Republicans. Even as their standing with the American people continues to tumble drastically, they are all still playing the blame game (McCain's pollster insisted that a reporter put on the record that he thinks GOP pollster Frank Luntz is a "moron" and that he wants to break his bones) and still jockeying selfishly for position. This year the Republican Party's-- not just George Bush's-- unfavorability rating has gone from 49% to an accelerating 61%. They do, however, still embrace the Republicans and their toxic policies and agenda in many of the old slave-holding states and in most of the most backward and ill-educated districts of the Mormon West.

Inside the Beltway elites are weeping for their brother, convicted and defeated Republican felon Ted Stevens today and senators from both sides of the aisle who are likely as guilty of taking bribes as he is-- if not as blatantly-- gave him a standing ovation and tried passing him off as a "distinguished colleague" (that was Harry Reid) rather than a disgraceful criminal. After all, like Lieberman, he is them and they are him. The Senate is not capable of monitoring its own criminal tendencies and there should be some kind of an outside authority to watch this pack of crooks. Six years is too long for their terms-- and too short for prison terms for more than half of them.

Anyway, back to the Republicans' fits and lurches towards some kind of recovery: you're not going to see it any time soon. Almost 60% of them are certain that they've been so thoroughly rejected by normal Americans because the party isn't far right enough! And those are the nuts in charge now. Yes, they want a party run by witch-hunter Sarah Palin, exorcist Bobby Jindal and an assorted array of Klansmen and sociopaths. It's so much easier to let five and dime entertainment figures and hustlers like Ted Nugent, Jimmy Dobson, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly set their agenda for them than actually trying to figure out how to serve the real needs of real American families. Remember, Hitler never won a majority but he was sort of elected. Even as the leaders of the entire civilized world refuse to even shake hands with Bush on his way to obscurity and the garbage heap of history, the GOP is still trying to hang on to a shred of power so they can sabotage Barack Obama's agenda for change-- an agenda to fix what they have lain waste. They seem to be determined to go down dragging the American automotive industry with them and bragging to the public that they will obstruct whatever President Obama tries to do.

What a strange coincidence for the Repugs!

They've learned nothing from the recent drubbings the American people have given them. Corruption hasn't slowed-- a Kit Bond and Roy Blunt operative pleaded guilty today-- and partisan hacks like Kentucky's two reactionary Republicans, McConnell and Bunning, are already plotting obstructionism against the Democrats' and moderate Republicans' attempt to solve the problems in Detroit, problems acerbated, if not caused, by far right Republicans manipulating the tax code to encourage SUVs and discourage fuel efficient vehicles. So reading Politico's post today that the Senate GOP is in a big funk, shouldn't surprise anyone who's been paying a little attention.

Some are in denial. Some want a return to conservative principles. Some want to cut deals. Some want more filibusters.

Others want to jump out a window-- but they’re afraid they’d screw that up, too.

“We probably wouldn’t die,” a Republican Senate aide joked Wednesday. “We’d just lie there, hurt and suffering, which is not too much different from where we are now.”

I suspect there aren't too many DWT readers who want to rush to their assistance, unless it's to offer an NRA-approved method of finishing the job more effectively.

The Republicans’ only glimmer of good news: When Stevens-- the longest-serving Republican in Senate history-- conceded his Alaska race to Democrat Mark Begich on Wednesday, he spared them the unpleasant task of having to expel him from their caucus.

...During a closed-door Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, DeMint offered proposals to impose term limits on the Republican leader and to restrict how long members can serve on the Appropriations Committee. The resolutions were soundly defeated, but not without bitter exchanges among the Republicans present for the meeting.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said the meeting was “terrible” and “caused consternation” among his colleagues because of the dispute over DeMint’s proposals.

GOP senators met behind closed doors again on Wednesday and did a quick review of their races, with the leadership and defeated incumbents blaming Republican losses on the economic downturn and the president’s call for a $700 billion economic rescue plan.

But even this session brought a clash between GOP lawmakers, as Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and Kit Bond of Missouri fought over whether Republicans should support a bailout of the auto industry, with Bond supporting it and Vitter opposed.

“Sometimes people don’t like change, but after two disastrous elections, we need it,” DeMint said. “We need to be who we say we are. The most important thing for the party is to mean something again.”

Retiring Sen. John Warner of Virginia-- who will be succeeded next year by a Democrat, former Gov. Mark Warner-- tried to lighten the mood Wednesday with some gallows humor.

Warner told of how he had gone to a straw poll in Virginia with McCain. Warner made a strong pitch for McCain at the event and figured he’d seal the deal by offering to pay for lunch for the whole crowd. When the voting was over, Texas Rep. Ron Paul had won.

In 6 days the Republican rump caucus will have a goodbye party for their departing colleagues-- Ted Stevens, John Warner, Pete Domenici, Elizabeth Dole, Wayne Allard, Gordon Smith, John Sununu, Larry Craig and Chuck Hagel. Other than people who might want to butter up probable Obama appointee Hagel-- and a few like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell who could try getting some local cruising tips from Craig-- I suspect this is one "party" that no one will be too eager to spend much time at.