They were against it before they were against it

MIDWEEK MUSINGS:

The current tossed salad of congressional Republicans has done more to debase the party's name than any in the 40 years that I was a paid witness to political hijinks by people engaged in that line of work. What else are we to think of a gang on the fringes of human intelligence that is attempting to scare the hell out of senior citizens by warning that current health insurance reform initiatives will reduce Medicare benefits? Whaaah? And what party has tried harder over the years to denigrate, scandalize, block and cut the benefits of Medicare and Social Security than the GOP? But its soldiers continue to plod on, confirming that ignorance is bliss in the wake of a recent New York Times/CBS news poll that President Obama is leading the Republicans 52-27 on who has the better ideas about health care reform, and that two-thirds of the public want a public option. Up and down the line in this and other polls Republicans are trailing with dismal public support. Sail on, o ship of hate!

The recent discovery of mini-Tyrannosaurus rex in northeastern China reportedly has drawn great interest from paleontologists who might have to reconsider their theories about the evolution of giant T rex, the so-called king of dinosaurs. But they could have saved the expense of going all the way to the Orient to find mini-T. A passing glance at the Senate Finance Committee., which rejected a public option yesterday, would have easily turned up several more recent examples of paleontological-friendly existence.

SIGNS OF OUR TIMES: Having just added a new Verizon land-line telephone to my home office desk, I hustled it to one of those shopping center kiosks to inquire about a problem.

"I have have a question" I said, holding up the phone to a young man at the Verizon kiosk.

"What's that?' he asked, staring at the phone.

"It's a telephone," I said. "You call people with it and they call you."

"I never saw one of those. I don't know what it is."

"But you have a big Verizon sign over your kiosk."

"True but we're a different company. We only deal with wireless."

"Do you have a telephone number that I can call?"

"No, we're a different company"

I backed off in defeat, wondering whether I was actually holding a telephone.

So I drove a greater distance to OfficeMax, where I had purchased the phone and mentioned my problem to a slight young girl.

"Oh, " she said cheerfully, "you just have to press this button."

It worked. I felt dumber than usual.

FINALLY: The Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) award goes to our old friend Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican, who responded to a constituent's doubts about global warming thusly:'

"I think he's right. I think what he's saying is God's still up there. We're going through these cycles....I really believe that a lot of people are in denial who want to hang their hat on the fact, that they believe is a fact, that man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, are causing global warming. The science isn't there."

Ahhhh.... Oklahoma. Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain.