quote for the day

I'm stealing this, just simply stealing it, because it's the best description of the Republican Party that I've seen. It pretty much covers it all, from the root of the problem, rather than the surface symptoms.

from steve, commenting on greg sargent's blog:

a functioning political party in a democracy is one that is a good faith participant in the project of governance, regardless of whether it is in or out of power. the repubicans have long since ceased to be such a party. since the 90s, they’ve degenerated into a band of circus clowns and nihilists. they’ve long since lost the capacity to lead, rather than be led by, the most ignorant, hateful segment of their rank and file.

the modern republican has no actual understanding of policy, no desire to understand policy and, indeed, believes that attempting to understand policy is proof of treason to the sacred principles of clown nihilism.

they are no longer serious people with serious opinions that deserve to be taken seriously. the fact that they are no longer serious people is a grave threat to the republic. and yet, our imbecilic msm persists in treating them like they’re still the party of eisenhower and howard baker. they don’t even percieve the problem. for people like stephenopolis or tapper, it’s because they’ve never known anything but the clown nihilists and they assume thus was it was and always will be. it’s less forgivable from the surviving old hands, people like cokie roberts or sam donaldson who should recall days when there were still republicans who believed government should govern and the point of dispute between the parties was merely “how much” rather than “whether.” for them, i think, the problem is the old one of the frog in the pot whose temperature is brought to a boil so slowly, they don’t ever see the need to jump out of the pot.

Newt Gingrich has actually pledged that if the GOP regains control in 2010, that he will basically shut down the government. Now, I wasnt aware that Newt actually will be in office (though his confidence in his ability to call shots makes one wonder about the power structure of the GOP, doesnt it?), but he ought to recall the last time he tried this back in 1996, when Bill Clinton handed the GOP their collective asses.
Of course, back then his base didnt consist of the Tea-partiers, and they were up against Clinton the Lying Adulterer rather than Obama the Kenyan-born Nazi Socialist Anti-Christ, so maybe his confidence level is higher this time around.