Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Is it too much to ask Cons to just grow the fuck up?

The Republican Party doesn't have an economic policy. Or a coherent foreign policy. It's more than a little fuzzy when it comes to health care, energy, the environment, and education.

But the shrinking GOP has invested quite a bit of time and energy into coming up with a new name for Democrats. Roger Simon reports:

A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the "Democrat Socialist Party."

Notice, these clowns can't even get the grammar right. The "Democratic Socialist Party" would merely be moronic; the "Democrat Socialist Party" is both moronic and an insult to the English language.

Regardless, the effort is a breakthrough moment in political inanity. Members of the Republican National Committee are holding a special meeting so they can officially ask Democrats to change the name of their political party to something Republicans prefer.

They're actually going to vote on this. They think this is going to help them in their quest to become a credible national party once again.

Hilzoy's decided the only thing left is meeting them on their level, and to this end has adopted a resolution of her own:

RESOLVED: that I, the member of me, do call upon the Republican Party to be honest and truthful with the American people by acknowledging that they have devolved into a party of schoolchildren and should, therefore, agree to rename themselves the Grand Old Poopyheads.

Mockery's really the only response to a Con party that's this inane. Digby brings it on with a series of photos, and finishes with a bang.

Maybe the Cons are hoping this infantile resolution will prove a pacifier to the wailing wingnuts who are incensed over the Republican party's backing of Crist for senator:

Teabagger Erick Erickson says that "getting behind Crist in the Florida primary is wholly unacceptable" and has started a Facebook group protesting the NRSC.

First they supported Chafee.

Then they supported Specter.

Now they support Crist.

I pledge to give no money, no support, no aid, and no help at all to the efforts of the NRSC.

The Anchor Baby's boy hissed,

Crist openly supported the Porkulus plan, which would have put him with Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins as the only Republicans in Congress who did.

And Glenn Beck's angry 3:00AM tweet says it all:

Charlie Crist, just what we need, a "soft" "friendly" moderate GOP member.... BARF

Big tent party!

Woot! Unfortunately, it looks like National Review's Jerry Taylor shouldn't hold his breath expecting an invitation. He said bad, bad things about Con heroes Limbaugh and Hannity, so he's on more than one shit list:

This, not surprisingly, also did not go over well at "The Corner." In fact, Mark Stein called Taylor's arguments "pathetic," and "an embarrassment to National Review." So, Taylor returned to the subject once more.

The question for conservatives is this: Do you want President Obama to succeed in painting the Republican party as the party of Rush Limbaugh? Given his sub-Nixon popularity figures, I can't believe I'm causing a firestorm by suggesting the answer here is probably "no."

Except, of course, he was causing a firestorm by crossing the one line conservatives aren't supposed to cross -- he questioned the value of letting a deceptive, drug-addled radio shock-jock lead a party and movement.

The irony here is that Democrats have worked for months to carefully characterize Limbaugh as the right's driving force and leading authority. Corner-ites, by slamming their conservative colleague for questioning the utility in following Limbaugh, only help reinforce the Dems' point.

Indeed. Thanks for that, dittoheads!

And special thanks are in order to Govs. Sanford and Perry, who are busy pounding the final nail in the "tea parties were totally spontaneous grassroots thingies!" coffin:

Today, Politico reports that Republican Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina are leading the latest development of the anti-tax, anti-Obama tea party protest movement. Dubbed the “Tea Party 2.0,” the Republican Governors Association will host a telephone conference call on Thursday with thousands of right-wing activists to discuss how “our states’ rights are being trampled upon.”

Official Republican Party involvement is nothing new in the tea party movement. The tea party efforts were initially organized by corporate lobbyists and GOP consultants, and later advertised for by Fox News. But by the time of the April 15 protests, hundreds of state and federal Republican office holders headlined events across the country. Eventually, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and RNC Chairman Michael Steele all but declared ownership of the protests.

Oh, and Rick? Since the federal government's so evil and socialist and trampling and stuff, you might want to go ahead and return its money. There's a good teabagger sponsor.

Finally, let's take a moment to appreciate the perfect pucker Reps Boehner and McCotter display as they prepare to kiss religious right ass:

The latest pander to the wingnuttia:

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) co-signed a letter characterizing Harry Knox, a member of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, as a "virulent anti-Catholic bigot" who has made "numerous vile dishonest attacks against the Church and the Holy Father."

The letter, delivered to the White House this morning, says that "[Knox has no business on any Council having to do with faith or religion," and calls on President Obama to "remove Mr. Knox from his position and to formally disassociate yourself from his militant anti-Catholicism."

So, what makes Knox a "virulent anti-Catholic bigot" who vilely attacked the Pope? After the Pope came out against condom use to fight AIDS, Knox said:

The Pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use. We are eager to help him do that. Until he [Pope Benedict] is willing to do that and able, he's doing a great deal more harm than good–not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people's lives.

What nerve.

Awww. They've been taking lessons in feigned outrage from Bill Donahue, haven't they? But we all know what good parrots Cons are. Just check out Eric Cantor's pitch-perfect repetition of Frank Lutz's anti-health reform memo:

On Bill Bennett’s radio show today, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) followed Luntz’s framing exactly. Here’s how Cantor’s rhetoric today lines up with Luntz’s suggestions:

LUNTZ: “Acknowledge the ‘crisis’ or suffer the consequences. … A better approach is to define the crisis in your terms. ‘If you’re one of the millions who can’t afford healthcare, it is a crisis.’”
CANTOR: “Listen Bill, there’s a health crisis. You know when you have, don’t have coverage, that’s a crisis for you and your family. We need to address it.”

LUNTZ: “The arguments against the Democrats’ healthcare plan must center around ‘politicians,’ ‘bureaucrats,’ and ‘Washington.’”
CANTOR: “But the answer is not to lay it on Washington, to pump up what Washington’s role in this.”

LUNTZ: “You’ll notice we recommend the phrase ‘government takeover’ rather than ‘government run’ or ‘government controlled.’”
CANTOR: “We all need to be standing up and saying no to a government takeover of our system.”

Aren't they precious? I'll bet they're all expecting gold stars.