What's With The GOP?

Tweety needs nourishment.

Have they decided to be a permanent minority party? Or are they in total denial about the recent election?

I just heard Dick Armey explaining to Tweety that the party really really has a litmus test for Presidential nomination. (He didn't use those words, of course, but it's what he meant.) He says that no one can get the nomination unless they oppose abortion, favor a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage, and profess their undying faith in Jesus. He ruled out a slew of candidates without batting an eye. I might just view this as normal rightist hubris and false bravado but --

Michael Steele yammers.

Before the weekend rumors abounded about Michael Steele's imminent takeover of the RNC. You remember Michael Steele, don't you? The former seminarian and empty suit who hired himself an excellent PR firm and came close to winning Paul Sarbanes seat in the senate. From Maryland. The same state in which Mr. Steele compared embryonic stem cell research to the holocaust. In front of a Jewish audience.

It looked to me as if the Republicans wanted to make a move that they in their semi-delusional state thought would help them in 2008. (Ken Mehlman is reportedly going off to work for Rudy. But Mr. Armey tells us that Rudy doesn't have a chance to get the nomination.) But I digress. After a weekend of shit-eating-grinning all over the TV, Mr. Steele finds that he has been replaced by

Mel Wants You To Be A Republican

A gen-u-ine Cuban born Hispanic-American Senator, Mel Martinez (R-FL) to be the RNC Chair. Unlike Brother Michael, Brother Mel has made no secret of his homophobia (which John discusses better than I could).

So what's going on? Did they all fail to notice that there was an election and the biggest bigots bought the farm? That pork isn't looked upon so kindly? And that folks want a little less ugly? Are they in denial insisting in their tiny monkey brains that it is some temporary aberation, like sun spots? I don't get it.