Having ruled the nation utterly for many years, the Republican Party now finds itself cast into the role of the minority. In this position it has taken on a gracious new slogan that sums up their feelings about the nation.
The party that huffed and puffed over every statement perceived as less than full-throated approval of Bush now openly and proudly cheers for the failure of the president. The party that makes a pretense of fiscal knowledge not only opts out of participating in the solution to the problems they created, but salivates over the thought of financial ruin.
Why? Because they've made the cold-blooded calculation that there's no margin for the Republican Party in America's recovery. Having brought us to unparalleled disaster, they've decided that the only way that the nation might find Republicans acceptable again, is to by bringing us so low that the soles of Dick Cheney's feet look like "up." When president Obama warns we may go from crisis to catastrophe, the Republicans sigh longingly and cry out "please!" They're just hoping we can find a level of misery sufficient to forget their well-demonstrated incompetence.
To that end, you can expect Republicans to continue slapping away any hand offering bipartisanship, to express outrage over any plan with even a glimmer of possible success, and to keep furiously drilling holes in the nation's already leaky lifeboats.
If President Obama were to locate the goose that laid the golden egg, Republicans would stock up on shotgun shells. Only when your children are wailing and your dreams are in ruins will the GOP offer to come to the table with their answer. (Hint: it'll be tax cuts for the rich.)
Until then, they'll continue to wear their new emblem proudly. Because there's one thing that hasn't changed: it's okay if you're a Republican.
Still, the graphic above doesn't really capture the jaunty spirit of the GOP's scorn for America. I know we have a lot of talented artists around this place. Surely someone can come up with the iconic image that will represent the Republican attitude as we try to ride out the Great Bushwhack.