House Republicans thrash in search of a new leadership team. Sam
Alito stands before the fully armed Judiciary Committee firing
squad, with a trembling Leader Bill Frist in the wings, fearing a
direct hit and the offensive of a filibuster he cannot break.
Meanwhile the natural successor to the lame duck President Bush,
Dick Cheney, spends more hours in the hospital, suggesting a crisis
even before the nasty battle for succession in the winter spring of
2008.
All told, Republicans appear to be
in turmoil and doubt. And does this translate to Democrat triumph?
Negative. The reason the Republican Party is so much in the news
with its intricate adjustments to the needs of the country is
because the Republican Party is the news. The Republican
Party has become a surrogate nation state in wartime. The
Republican Party’s rude manners, strange choices, char-broiled
tastes, deep bench talent, Henry V fate, is all the excitement the
Republic can imagine. Jettisoning DeLay was good corporate
governance. Sending an exceedingly well-built Alito machine into
the lion’s den is the same as sending a carrier battle group into
harm’s way; it is power-projection. And questioning the health of
the VPOTUS, like that of the POTUS, is a moment to look ahead, to
sort out the next brood of Republican leaders for the CINC
job.
Where are the Democrats? In the same bottle-fed, undemanding,
ceremonial position the Republicans endured during the long
struggle against fascism in FDR’s years: coat-holders, hostesses,
ushers, protesters, whiners, commentators and my favorite, voices
of conscience.
