Guru Mitt is back. We knew him when...

I know it's not on your short list of things to know, but I will say it anyway:  Want to know what chutzpah is? I think I've figured it out beyond dispute.  It's Mitt Romney, the fellow who just lost an election by 5 million votes, piggybacking on Fox News as the emerging guru of choice to advise President Obama on how to run the Ship of State.

He hasn't learned that the political class doesn't really care what losers think, particularly those losers who were expected to win.  Is it rehab time for Mitt?  Republicans should hope not.

Speaking of Republicans, they did display a hint of intelligence by not inviting Chris Christie to the CPAC conference. Can anyone imagine a governor with a near-perfect approval rating in his home state appearing on the same program with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who  has a 27 pct. approval rating in Virginia (apart from his very conservative congressional district just  outside Richmond.)

And speaking more of Cantor, the March 4 issue of  the New Yorker examines the turmoil within the GOP in great depth to reveal how Speaker Boehner and Cantor serve at the pleasure of the Tea Party - the "unrulies" who have taken over the  Republican majority in the House, writes Ryan Lizza.   It's a long piece, but well worth a reader's time.

Hagel's enemies: The renenactment of Little Bighorn?

You might wonder how desperately low the psychopathic core of the Republican Party would go until you are reminded that it is flailing in a bottomless pit.

That became obvious once again following President Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be our next secretary of defense.  On cue, as if on orders from  Gen. Custer,   they angrily surged  before the ever-present TV cameras to denounce the former Republican senator from Nebraska with a series of threats that may yet produce a new swiftboat assault on a decorated war hero.

House majority leader Eric Cantor said he was "profoundly" concerned about the president's choice, declaring Hagel to be an enemy of Israel. (When was the last time that Cantor was profound about anything?)  Sen. Lindsay Graham agreed and called it an "in your face" action by Obama.  Sens. John McCain and Jon Cornyn couldn't find enough words to slam their former colleague.  The sky was falling.

Shame on them, even if they are psychopaths.   All of this nastiness flared just as the final figures of  the popular tally in November gave Obama a five-million vote margin. Oh, and the conservative Log Cabin Republicans came out swinging because Hagel was suspected of being against gays.  You get another whiff of how quickly the "Just say NO"gang mobilizes.

The emptiness of these losers recalls the scene from Cinema Paradiso in which the old film projectionist tells a long rambling  story to his  young companion.  "What does it all mean?" the puzzled boy asks.

"What does it all mean?" the old man gruffily replies.  "It doesn't mean nothing."

The Theater of Absurd on Capitol Hill

As we slogged through another day of the Theater of the Absurd on Capitol Hill,  it became clear that there were several levels of interpreting the monstrous action on and off the fiscal cliff stage.

(1) You could try to understand it as John Boehner's desperate attempt to save his speakership as well as his congressional seat, the country be damned.

(2) You could try to understand it as Eric Cantor's wily scheme to succeed Boehner -- Cantor, the modern Cassius whom Shakespeare described as a fellow with a "lean and hungry look" , adding: "he thinks too much; such men are dangerous.".

(3)You could try to understand it as  a new year's toast to Grover Norquist, the unelected anti-tax lobbyist who has a death grip on an army of  Republicans in the House of Representatives.

(4) You could try to understand it as a malignant hatred of President Obama, more so now that he won the election by nearly 5 million votes.

(5)You could try to understand it as unsurpassed,  if foolhardy,  grandstanding  driven by an absolute disregard of how history will remember the participants.

(6)Or you could try to understand it  as  the mob scene of a bunch  of overfed lunatics.

If you weave all of these into the narrative, you can see that we are in deep trouble, folks.

Part Two: A fun House divided

THEY'RE BACK FOR A NEW SEASON OF FUN-FILLED DEMOCRACY! (By the way, which one is Stephen Colbert?)

Boehner and Cantor: Good for a laugh!

Ho, Ho, Ho....Ha, Ha, Ha....Why are these two guys laughing, you ask? Well, they are in some way celebrating their succcess in blocking a two-month extension of a tax cut for you and me. Funny, huh? A real hoot? These Republicans are too much . And as Adlai Stevenson once said, "It hurts too much to laugh and I'm too old to cry." But as John Boehner and Eric Cantor tell it...Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho, Ho......... And Hee, Hee, Hee....

Need a laugh? Try Cain and Cantor

AS SOME OF you may have noticed, I often regress into delirium and take a serious look at a serious issue. But in surveying the comments by the Republican pols, it is getting harder to keep a straight face. They dodge all questions by saying it is critical to focus on creating jobs. And then they come at you with notions about same-sex marriage, class warfare, Mormonism, abortion and voter fraud.

Are they kidding, or what? For me, it is now like watching one silly squirrel chasing another squirrel up and down the tree in our back yard. For humans, their antics are fun to watch.

We now have Person of Interest #3 or #4 Herman Cain insisting that black Americans have been "brainwashed" to vote for Democrats. An African American himself, he has cast himself as the valid authority on mass brainwashing of minorities. By whom were they brain-washed? He blames Democrats, which is hardly newsworthy since the Republican candidates spend most of their time these days blaming Democrats when they aren't blaming each other for something.

I would tell them that as I recall, the Democrats were responsible for Medicare, Social Secrurity, voting rights and a number of other programs that benefitted the alleged brainwashed blacks in America. But if I did, I suspect Cain would accuse me of ordering the wrong brand of pizza.

I doubt that Mitt Romney would want to take the brainwashing tack inasmuch as it would open old family wounds. When Dad George, himself a presidential candidate, returned from a visit to Viet Nam in 1967, he was repentant in explaining to a radio interviewer why he was no longer a hawk. He said he had been the victim (by the military) of the "greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." Time magazine expressed its astonishment over Romney's explanation, describing it as "inept." Small wonder that Mitt has stuck to less inconsiderate comments like "corporations are people" even though I think that it, too, is a bit inept.

Then we come - again! - to jolly Eric Cantor, who should be pitied rather than censured for trying to be so profoundly above the battle . The Virginia Republican, who is forever in the midst of the battle, says the Wall Street demonstrations are increasingly troubling to him. . He told the the folks at the 2011 Voter Values Summit the past week that the protests by the "mobs" were an example of "class warfare" that is increasingly troubling to him because they are "pitting Americans against Americans."

I would consider him an expert on class "pitting" since the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, of which Cantor is the majority leader, has devoted a lot of its time doing just. But here I go again, getting serious when I thought we were in this for the laughs.

Seen any upbeat movies lately? Otherwise, we'll just have to squeeze s few more laughs out of the squirrelly Republican political class before they start falling out of the trees.

Boehner plus Cantor equals atavism

John Boehner and Eric Cantor, to name a few, are misanthropic atavists. It's not important that you know what the term means. We can't all be George Wills. Actually, I made up the term, which is not that unusual in national discourse these days. There are a lot of made-up names being flung toward President Obama that are meaningless. Like socialist. Even the folks who use that vengeful word don't know what it means, but they go right on saying it anyway. Maybe it helps their digestion.

Precise communication is not America's strong suit these days despite all of the twitterers walking around malls with those gadgets grafted to their ears.

Talk about communication skills: If you watch TV commercials in any half-hour segment, you would come to believe that we are the happiest nation on the planet. Every item that's promoted works. You know that to be true because there are usually two or three people standing around with happy faces to tell you that it really works. Unless, of course, we are being sold a certain medicinal miracle that , if you have fatal side effects, really doesn't work. By then, it is too late to call you doctor as the pitchman advises you to do - immediately! (I'm particularly curious about the soft-drink commercial in which everyone is awash with the stuff and dancing ecstatically. I tried it, and can tell you that it doesn't work that way.)

I regret that we have reached this level of incoherence in 2011, especially during the 100th anniversary of Marshall McLuhan's birthday. There isn't even a short street named for him in my town and I dare not ask my councilperson to do something about it.

I was drawn to the Canadian professor and media specialist in 1964, when everybody seemed to be talking about his new book, Understanding Media, the Extension of Man. But as a magazine editor, I needed a break from political screeds that were pouring out of the radical right's mimeo machines during the Goldwater campaign. McLuhan argued that the "medium is the message". At the risk of oversimplification: he insisted that it is more important to recognize the medium that influences our existence than what is actually being said.

That's particularly true today when , say, Tea Party rallies are the medium rather than the exhortations by the sign wavers to take back the country. Or, as the professor maintained: "a lightbulb creates an environment by its mere presence." I'd rather not take this further, especially since I haven't noticed any lightbulbs at the rallies.

But to return to Boehner/Cantor: They do find TV the convenient medium to exhibit their atavism, however that might apply as they grope around in the Dark Ages. There has, after all, long been the standing notion that if it isn't shown on TV, it never happened.

What a lousy way to solve the nation's economic problems. Now that I've said it, I'm beginning to feel better about my made-up term.

Of hurricanes, locusts and Michele Bachmann

THE REPUBLICAN presidential candidates and their kin have been constructing their own Tower of Babble since Annie Oakley arrived from Alaska to lay waste to the Obama Administration. Sarah Palin and her wondrous reflections on everything not verified by textbooks have sort of been orbiting on the fringes of the current crop of carnivores, but it does lead you to wonder whether there isn't some truth to the peril of peaking too fast.

Meantime we've been treated to the grapes of wrath from everyone else carrying the banner of God, Jefferson Davis, Glenn Beck and Grover Norquist. (I've left some others out, but you surely get the idea.)

Some samples of this political theater of the absurd: The President will declare martial law (Mentioned prez candidate Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican) ; The federal government should be "inconsequential'', hotshot (hot flash?) meteor Rick Perry; Obama is overreaching by encouraging children to exercise (Fox & Friends, presidential "advisors".) Obama is only interested in creating class warfare instead of jobs (House Majority leader Eric Cantor) ; Obama is a Communist, socialist and elitist because he put Dijon mustard on his hamburger. (Ready choir?)

And just now, candidate Michele Bachmann has plaintively lamented in response to the hurricane: "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians."

If you don't mind, Michele, I presume we still have to get to the frogs, lice and locusts. I don't even want to wait for the movie.

Eric Cantor: Boehner 's Dick Cheney

WITH SO MUCH media attention directed at Rep. Eric Cantor's back- channel influence on House Majority Leader John Boehner's teetering debt policy, it's reasonable to suggest that Cantor , the House whip and No.2 man under the speaker, has evolved into Boehner's Dick Cheney. Cantor, who has praised the Tea Party as the "surge protector" against big government, is getting cozier each day with the teabaggers in his hard line against compromise with President Obama. Still, as an overreaching zealot he is more troublesome to Capitol Hill Republicans than he is to the president, who happens to be much savvier than Cantor and will take the Virginia congressman to school in the the current debate.

Cantor has been here before. A rabid Zionist, he didn't hesitate to publicly endorse Israeli hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the latter arrived in Washington to express his deep differences with Obama on Middle East policy. Cantor told him: "I'm with you, not my president" and promised that the majority House Republicans would "serve as a check on the administration."

He's probably guaranteeing the Tea Party the same allegiance in his attempt to guide Boehner away from any kind of deal on raising the debt limit. In his own misguided way to keep Boehner in tow, he's making life miserable for a lot of people in and out of government. But in the end he will find that life can get just as miserable for opportunists scheming their way to the executive suite. Even conservatives like David Brooks and the editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal are finding little to cheer about in the mess that the Republicans are creating for the country. It's a bit premature for Cantor to take a bow for his own self-absorbed work on Capitol Hill to educate his colleague John Boehner in the demands of the Ranting Right.

No homer for Cantor, who takes a walk

NOT SINCE Bill Mazeroski's historic walk-off home run to defeat the Yankees in 1960 has such an abrupt ending invited more attention than Rep. Eric Cantor's walk-off tantrum in his budget talks with Vice President Joe Biden. But there the comparison ends. Mazeroski's World Series clincher led him into Baseball's Hall of Fame for a job well done. Cantor's hissy fit merely confirmed that he is not always in touch with the realities of his job. No matter his erratic behavior as a Republican Tea Party fan and the House majority leader from Virginia, he doesn't impress me as a fellow looking at a Hall of Fame down the road. Frankly, he's nothing more than an grandstanding nuisance, not only to President Obama, but to House Speaker John Boehner.

Indeed, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein wrote:

"Cantor has the credibility with the Tea Party that Boehner lacks. But that's why Cantor won't cut the deal. The Tea Party-types support him because he's the guy who won't cut the deal. He can't sign off on tax increases without losing his power base. But if he's able to throw it back to Boehner and Boehner cuts the deal, that's all good for Cantor."

It's an awful pas de deux of the two top Republicans in the House of Representatives while a governmental shutdown hangs in the balance. There are days when the public interest loses all meaning. In fact, too many days.

Iraq, auto industry: No praise of GOP folly

I HAD ONCE THOUGHT that the worst flogging of reality occurred in the days following the invasion of Iraq. It was the hollow reassurance by the hawkish Bush Administration officials that likened the war to a brief walk in the park. A few reminders as the pro-war hucksters paraded through the TV talk shows to validate the grand design to bring instant peace to the world:

"I think it will go relatively quickly. Weeks rather than months." - Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003.

"I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that." - Donald Rumsfeld , Feb. 7, 2003.

Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, two key Bush hawks that helped design the war plans, inisted that American troops would be treated as liberators by the Iraqis. Perle even went so far as to say that within six months of the invasion, a plaza in down Baghdad would be named in honor of Bush.

How could so many apologists for a single destructive plan be such villains?

Well, some of the untidy elements of that failed group have been showing up in the rebirth of the American auto industry. Thanks to Dick Polman, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, whose work appeared today in the Beacon Journal, we can review the psychotic response by the right-wing Ninjas on Capitol Hill who lashed the Bush-Obama bailout of once-bankrupt GM and Chrysler as a dangerous leftwing government invasion of private industry.

A few of his examples will serve the point on how these Republicans ganged up on President Obama as a reincarnation of Lenin. Or was it Hugo Chavez, who's still around?:

Sen. John McCain, who remains the GOP's media star-in-waiting, declared: "Anybody who believes that Chrysler is going to survive, I'd like to meet them." (Have you thought about taking a walk along Chrysler's assembly lines these days, John?)

Or Rep, Eric Cantor, John Boehner's Little Sir Echo, except that he smiles more than Number One, who warned that Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid were trying to build a car that he wouldn't want to drive. Why? The Obama crowd will "run it into the ground." (The limo's waiting, Eric.)

Can't overlook Boehner, the Man of the House: The rescue effort "guarantees failure at taxpayer expense."

Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama: "'I wouldn't loan them any money. General Motors...is headed down this road to oblivion. Should we intervene to slow it down, knowing it's going to happen. I say no."

Fortunately for the country, guys, it wasn't your call and we can understand why you'd prefer to say nothing and move on to other things. As Polman notes, both companies are now out of bankruptcy and showing profits. He notes that President Obama's intervention saved many livelihoods. Since 2009, the auto industry has added 52,900 jobs.

So where are these critics to concede their job-killing errors? Oh. there's still ObamaCare. And abortion. And, well,...you know the drill. There's always something, right?

Cantor: Nullification a step in right direction

YOU'RE looking at Rep. Eric Cantor , the likely next House Majority Leader, who apparently is trying to pick up further instructions from outer space. Cantor's latest deposit of wisdom on the media deals with something that was settled by the Civil War. It's called nullification, which would allow states to ignore Federal laws of their choosing. Here's what Cantor says about a proposed amendment to that effect in his home state of Virgin -yah:

"The Repeal Amendment would provide a check on the ever-expanding federal government, protect against congressional overreach, and get the government working for the people again, not the other way around. In order to return America to opportunity, responsibility, and success, we must reverse course and the Repeal Amendment is a step in that direction."

The worst part about this is that we will have to put up with his playground bullying for at least two more years. As you can see, Sir Eric, I, too, want my country back.

ERIC CANTOR: THE TEA PARTY IS AMERICA

THE REPUBLICANS, joined by some mindless Democrats, continue to retreat before the arrival of those Tea Party-backed congressmen/women on Capitol Hill in January. Get this from Rep. Eric Cantor, the Virginia rightie who will be the House Republican leader: "I've always thought of the Tea Party as representing America." I wonder if Cantor, who is Jewish, includes those folks at Tea Party rallies waving signs insisting that "America is a Christian nation."

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!

Eric Cantor: Boehner's doppelganger?

You should get used to this duet who will appear together in most photo ops for the next two years -Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Eric is usually one step to the rear and one step to the right, the politically correct lineup of the pecking order.

On the other hand, is it at all possible that there is no Eric Cantor at all and that the image you see is simply a doppelganger of the incoming House speaker? Don't sneer at that, folks. Not after all of the other strange things that happened in the past election. (I felt the same way about Christine O'Donnell when she appeared on the screen with Sarah Palin. And I was right!)

Boehner means business about,,.um... small business

IN THEIR POST-ELECTION theatrics, Republican leaders in the House continued to hypnotize us with their promises that the new Congress will get American moving again by helping small business. You can count on us to help small businesses in America, the likely House Speaker told us countless times long past midnight. It's critical, he says, that Congress take up the task immediately for the sake of...um...small businesses. Rep. Eric Cantor, the next in line dauphin in the House, is another robotic supporter of..um...small business. The only difference of Boehner's portrayal of the alleged work ahead is that Cantor doesn't say it tearfully but rather with a wide brush-a- brush-a brush-a Ipana smile that appears to be awfully real.

Where have these fellows been?

As I recall, the Democratic Congress finally was successful in passing a $30 billion small- business measure in September after GOP chorus blocked it for months. But it's easy to find disconnects with Boehner, one of corporate America's (i.e., big, big business) favorite baggers of lobbyist money even if he insists he is a commoner who shares the woes of small business because as a kid he used to scrub floors in his father's little tavern.

The tough GOP brand is under the bed

NOTE TO Reps. John Boehner and his sidekick Eric Cantor: You can come out from under the bed now. President Obama swears he won't hit you. Honest. He's simply asked you to do what you've said you've wanted to do for a year: Have a sitdown with him on the health care reform bill. He doesn't care whether you come with your cues scribbled on your palms. He just wants to hear you out on one of the most urgent issues facing Americans today, health care. Even mob rivals have sitdowns to resolve their differences. Instead of agreeing, you've sent him a number of questions to be answered before you accept the invitation. I especially liked the ones in which you wanted know what color necktie he would be wearing and whether you would have to sit through some film clips of Sarah Palin. You boys are supposed to represent the muscular Republican brand in the House of Representatives and here you are, cowering under the bed and hoping that he will go away. I mean, he wants both sides to put their cards on the table in a publicly televised session. This would be your chance to tell the public exactly what you are proposing instead of being the nasty party of NO. You may also want to explain why some of your House members are now proposing to dump Medicare and privatize Social Security. We've been buried in one snowstorm after another and could all use some laughs. You must be terribly worried that Obama, as he has demonstrated before, is more mentally agile than you are. Here's your chance to prove him wrong before the maid comes to change the sheets on your bed. Carpe diem!

GOP: The family fight grows louder

THE GOP's Doomsday Clock moved ahead a couple of minutes this week as internecine warfare broke out in force between the defenders of the party faith and, well...the defenders of the party faith.  I mean, when the party's social conservatives start attacking true believing conservatives like Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia , you know that you are in for advancing the end of days.

It recalled the days of medieval battles between the Guelphs, who supported the papacy, and the Ghibellines who supported the the Holy Roman Empire, which historians have keenly noted wasn't at all holy, Roman or an empire.  You have to be  just as careful today in assuming too much about names.  The current trouble began when Cantor and John McCain decided  it would be a healthy  sign of progress to form a new group to  save their benumbed post-Whig Party, daringly calling it the National Council for a New America.  

There was really nothing abhorrent about the effort.  People are forever creating new groups with patriotic forward-looking titles to replace similar patriotic forward-looking groups  that somehow never worked.  POLITICO.com quoted McCain's description of the council's goals as an effort to attract moderates and "like-minded Democrats" to a series of public forums around the country.  You may recall that McCain regularly challenged Barack Obama during the past campaign to join him in a series of town hall forums throughout the land. I suspect that his failure to lure Obama into these stuffy compact halls has not discouraged the Arizona senator from his obsession to talk up close to people, particularly those who voted last November.

But it didn't take the party's every-present social conservatives very long to slam Cantor and McCain as abandoning such golden oldies as same-sex marriage,  immigration and abortion.

POLITICO drew this remark from Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who sneered: "The moderates have been saying the same thing all these years and now they're just seeing a renewed opportunity to push their  ideas," which he abhors.

Others jumped into the fray, including the Family Research Council, which also rose to protect "family values" and reminded  Cantor/McCain that Mike Huckabee (hope I spelled that right) was creating "such excitement in the conservative base" while the Republican establishment doesn't draw a crowd.

It was at this point that our old buddy from Ohio, Ken Blackwell, who is quite active in Planet Family Values despite his blistering defeat as a gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, complained to POLITICO  that the Cantor/McCain group does not "reflect a basic reality".   He would know about such realities.

Finally, Rush Limbaugh put his authoritative imprimatur on the anti-National Council for a New America crowd.  He modestly called the council a "scam."

With that, I'm calling upon the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists,  which measures approaching catastrophic destruction of the globe with its Doomsday Clock, to move the GOP an additional minute or two toward its own denise.    

. 

Eric Cantor: swimming up mainstream

AND ANOTHER Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) award goes to Rep. Eric Cantor, of Virginia, the ubiquitous right-wing Republican who tried to explain why he is so frustrated that President Obama is not paying more attention to advice from the GOP.  Appearing on C-SPAN, Cantor opined:

"Look, we want to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.  We want to try to bring this president into the mainstream."

Mainstream?  Eric, Eric!  The latest CBS poll gave Obama a 64 pct. public approval rating against  20 pct. disapproval! ( For his studied research on the Obama Administration, Cantor attended a Britney Spears concert during the president's news conference.) 

Will somebody please hold a mirror up to Cantor's nostrils to see if he is still breathing?   

CEO Limbaugh's party of lemmings

AFTER BARRY GOLDWATER'S  crushing defeat in 1964, some respected national pundits, including Walter Lippmann, argued that it might take 25 years for the Republican Party to return to the White House.  But the party turned to the steady hand of Ray Bliss for its leadership, whose wisdom and taciturn manner reversed the GOP fortunes in four years.  But even his success was not enough to convince Richard Nixon to retain him as the chairman. He was summarily forced out by the moody president.  Still, the Bliss record - high on winning strategy and low on hard-core ideology - after Goldwater's dismal showing  speaks for itself.

So what do we have today? An angstfest!   As the Republican National Committee meets this week to choose a chairman, the buzz from the experts is that the RNC will  choose a man with the strongest conservative credentials.   They say the odds favor Ken Blackwell, a conservative's conservative who is preaching the same thing that led him to landslide  defeat in Ohio's gubernatorial race in 20o6. But his  peculiar ways have  won him endorsements from many right-wing groups for the RNC job.  These days, it figures.  

Still,  even the RNC might be confined to the wings by  the party's new CEO:   You guessed, Rush, the supreme  leader.    MSNBC's David Shuster and analyst Larry O'Donnell now are referring to him as the party's "de facto leader". ( I'll stick with CEO.)  Although it would be nice if we could stop inflating Rush's ego and isolate him in his broadcast bunker,  he can't be ignored for his grip on the Republican Party.   Consider this:  In the past few days a Republican congressman from Georgia, Phil Gingrey, slavishly apologized to Limbaugh for having asked the CEO to cool down a bit about Obama.   "I regret and apologize that my comments offended and upset my fellow conservatives," Gingrey said in a phone call to Limbaugh that sounded more like a plea for mercy  to the Inquisition.  That must be a first in congressional humility at the throne of a broadcaster!  And shameful!

Not to be outdone, Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 man in the Republican ranks,  proudly appeared on  Limbaugh's program to wish him well and thank him , gushing:  "Thank goodness,  You're there to help get this (anti-stimulus) message out."  Cantor has even sent out pleas to his own constituents in his Richmond, Va., upscale district, to support Limbaugh and refused to criticize Limbaugh's hopes that Obama will fail.  There will be more of this toxic  nonsense in the days  ahead as the GOP reduces itself to Limbaugh's party of lemmings - and worse.  It will have the opposite effect of the Bliss influence that succeeded without fanfare.    Is there a Republican on Capitol Hill who would openly disagree?  

The Movement Class

AT THE  1976 Republican convention, Bill Batchelder, the Republican state representative from Medina, Oh,  fashioned his signature wide grin as he snake-danced through the hotel corridor with a number of his conservative delegates. 

 "What are you doing?" I recall asking him. 

"It's the Movement," he exclaimed, joyously.   "The Movement!"

That was my first encounter with the word as a battle cry for conservative conservative Republicans.  And although Ronald Reagan was narrowly defeated by a sitting Republican president, Gerald Ford, he would be triumphantly back in 1980 as the godly icon of the Movement Class - a phenomenon that has again revealed itself from the ashes of last Tuesday's GOP disaster.  Op-Ed pages, talk show gurus and eager Movement politicians are now ganging up for their born-again opportunities to lead the party to righteous victory in 2012.  They'll all be at the Republican Governors Association in Miami beginning tomorrow to seek out the nearest TV camera to offer a Good Housekeeping remedy for the party's ills.  

I doubt that they will come up with a workable solution  as each wiggles  to find a special place of prominence on Olympus when  the great mentioning game begins to identify a format for what is now generally regarded as a regional party. And a racially and ethnically barren party.  Not a single African American in the Republican House and Senate delegations.  Only one Republican Jew in the U.S House, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, who is somewhere to the right of  Rush Limbaugh and wants to be the minority leader.  At the same time, the president of the United States Conference  of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, has instructed  the bishops to confront Barack Obama on abortion, a conservative light switch.  

 The star attraction will be Gov. Sarah Palin, who hasn't convinced the Movement Class that controls the party that she is a political liability.  She'll be at the convention as a speaker and as a source of a number of national interviews.    But she isn't quite ready to announce her candidacy for president in 2012. In an interview with Fox News, she said she is awaiting word from God that He will open a door for her candidacy.  That should settle the commotion of where the party will go from here.  Conservatively speaking,  it's a start.