The Great Awashed - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Sat Jan-06-07 05:16 PM
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The Great Awashed

The Great Awashed
By Nancy Greggs

If you heard a loud crash in the past week and wondered what it was, that was the sound of the Republican party’s chances of regaining power or retaining the White House in 2008 falling off a cliff.

Understandably, many of you may have missed it, the great noise having been drowned out by the sound of wailing, whining, and the childish temper-tantrums of the manly-men of the Grand Ol’ Party.

After years of telling the Democrats to suck it up, the GOP congress-critters spent their first days in session so awash in tears, many DC commuters were forced to abandon their cars and paddle home in canoes.

It was quite a show. The people who have held themselves out as John Wayne, ever at the ready to grab their rifles and keep the country safe, collapsed on the fainting couch with an attack of the vapors, a pile of Aunt Pitty-Pats hysterically telling Scarlett that those damned Yankees were about to take Atlanta.

To be honest, I was expecting better from the Republicans – certainly not as people, but as politicians. I fully anticipated the party’s return to the nation’s business to be approached with stoicism, a we’re-down-but-not-out attitude, accompanied by optimistic predictions that the Democrats, now saddled with the responsibilities of acting instead of criticizing the actions of others, would fall on their faces in record time.

But instead they stamped their feet and howled about not being treated fairly by the opposition, a display so reminiscent of kindergarten, I fully suspect that several GOP mommies and daddies were called to come and take their kiddies home for some “quiet time” before resuming their responsibilities as the nation’s elected representatives.

It’s not like the Republicans didn’t have enough to cry about already. They started the new year on the heels of a sound mid-term thrashing, standing behind a president whose approval numbers are headed for single digits, and entangled in corruption that is now about to be investigated and exposed.

Still, one would have expected a little more maturity from the people who have consistently bragged about being strong enough to make the tough decisions, brave enough to fight the country’s enemies (real or imagined), and adult enough to know what was best for everyone.

But instead of keeping up the arrogant swagger of the schoolyard bully, they fell to the ground in sobs – long before the kid they’d picked on for years even had a chance to throw the first punch.

A word to the wise, my GOP friends: Keep those hankies dry, because it’s about to get worse – much, much worse. Your years of failure to look after the nation’s interests are about to be made even more glaringly obvious as the Democrats get down to doing the work that you left unattended, and undoing the mess you’ve made of the country.

I strongly suspect that things like raising the minimum wage and cheaper prescription drugs are going to be viewed a lot more favorably than the Bankruptcy Bill or corporate tax cuts, and that discussing affordable health care will blow the doors off endless prattling about flag-burning.

In view of what will undoubtedly come to light over the next two years about the GOP, its president and administration, perhaps they simply foresaw the inevitable and decided to throw in the cryin’ towel sooner rather than later.

It wasn’t as though they had much of a chance in ’08 anyway – the party that gave us the War in Iraq, the debacle of the Katrina aftermath, escalating debt and a failing economy doesn’t exactly have a lot to point to in terms of past heck-of-a-job accomplishments. And chances are that any number of “presidential hopefuls” they have in mind today will wind up taking the Fifth tomorrow – something that tends not to go over too well with the voting public.

But I must admit my surprise at their failure to arm themselves with the usual rhetoric and spin, and at least put up a fight. I expected the soldierly attitude of we’ll-live-to-do-battle-another-day, the pain of defeat hidden behind the traditional arrogance, instead of a bunch of crybabies wailing for attention.

It’s sad to say, but we now know the truth about our esteemed opposition: once the glory of being in control was gone, the guts apparently went with it.