You've seen the shows - World Poker Tour, Best Poker Players of All Mankind, etc, etc. where a collection of oddballs sit for hours playing Texas Hold'em while announcers whisper breathlessly about strategies, options, and how smart the players are. As the game progresses, players fall out one at a time, in the end going all-in - that is, pushing all their chips to the center of the table to go out in a blaze of glory in that one last chance their hand may be good enough to win. They almost always lose to the expressionless poker master.
Yesterday, House Republicans, inspired by their new czar, Rush Limbaugh, skipped the entire game and went all-in on the first hand. They've gambled big time as a block that their unvarnished partisanship of old will still work in the brave new post-partisanship world. Setting aside for now the bill itself, the Repubs cynically acted like they were working with the Dems...offering amendments, running over to the rotunda to give interviews to any television reporter who would talk to them, all the while planning a 100% stand against the new President.
In the middle of the circus on Capitol Hill, though, the real drama was being played out on national radio during the Republicans' daily helping of Soylent Green from the Republican Party's Chairman and High Priest. Phil Gingrey, a duly elected Congressman actually apologized publicly to Rush Limbaugh for daring to offend him by disagreeing with his ridiculous assertions the previous day. Have a look at a segment from Hardball yesterday talking about Phil Gingrey groveling to Rush on the air:
Now today, the Wall Street Journal actually gave Op-Ed space to Limbaugh to continue speaking for the Republican Party. In the piece, Limbaugh hilariously talked about bi-partisanship. Yes, you heard me right...bi-partisanship. From Rush Limbaugh, king of bloviation, distortion, and comedy. Of course, Limbaugh's version of bi-partisanship is dividing legislation by the percentage of the national election, 54-46 by his count. Not only is this one of the most asinine arguments have ever read, it's disingenuous on the face, especially from this clown. This guy, along with discredited pundits like Bob Novak, claimed GWB earned mandates in 2000 (when Bush lost the popular vote) and 2004 (when Bush won a bare majority), but denied Obama earned a mandate with a convincing popular margin and an electoral landslide. He also tagged the new stimulus bill "porkulus", which was then idiotically parroted by his synchopants, even on these pages yesterday. At what point did Rush Limbaugh become a spokesman of such stature as to be given actual Op-Ed space in a major newspaper? Apparently, that's how low the Journal has sunk after the takeover by Rupert Murdoch.
Are the Republicans now so corrupt that they let this disgusting blob speak for them, and indeed elected officials actually cower before him? What has happened to the GOP that they are willing to gamble the next election on the first major bill of this administration lead by Rush? Certainly, part of the problem is that there are no moderate Republicans left. As the Democrats gained in both houses in 2006 and 2008, moderate Republicans were pushed out, leaving only extremist right wingers who actually take Rush (who is really just a paid entertainer), seriously and allow this boob to speak for them.
The Repubs have taken a huge gamble. If this bill works, or if the economy begins to recover, their gamble will fail, and they will lose more seats after the next census redistricting and 2010 elections. If they continue on this path, Limbaugh's prediction of a generational Democratic majority may come true. But not for the reasons that he states.
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