Filibuster Cartoons
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The Republican Party in the post-Bush-McCain-Palin era seems to be suffering from a decided lack of leadership these days. As a result, a lot of characters have been coming out of the woodwork lately, each claiming to represent the true heart of the beleaguered party in some unique way.
They include:
Michael Steele, the newly-minted chairman of the Republican National Committee. As a funny, moderate African-American known for his media savvy, many initially had high hopes that’d bring a breath of fresh air into the party. Unfortunately, as the weeks progress he’s increasingly earning a reputation of a bit of a bumbling bonehead who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about a good percentage of the time. Like recently, when he cited the fact that Greenland is no longer green as evidence that the planet is getting colder, not warmer.
Rush Limbaugh, the ultimate conservative talking-head. Emblematic of the so-called “angry right,” Rush recently quipped that he hoped Obama would “fail,” and was a big opponent of the president’s stimulus package. Is hoping the economy, war, and country in general collapse into chaos out of spite for the White House a viable ideological strategy for the next four years? Some clearly do, others think Rush needs to go back to his pills.
Bobby Jindal, another great non-white hope for the Republicans. Governor Jindal is a fairly average politician who happens to have a slightly interesting personal biography, so needless to say the party establishment now declares him to be one of the most fascinating men in America today. His first big moment in the national spotlight was a flop, however. Given the task of offering a televised rebuttal to President Obama’s address to Congress, Jindal spoke to America like an over-Prozac’d Mr. Rogers instructing the special needs class how to use fingerpaints.
Jonathan Krohn, a 14-year-old who is on TV a lot for some reason. Krohn is a little homeschooled weirdo who, like most homeschooled kids I’ve ever known, is incredibly socially awkward and maladjusted. But he also likes talking about conservatism, so Republicans have declared him the Next Big Thing. So I’m sure he’ll be on “Fox and Friends” a lot in the near future, slurring about Ronald Reagan and stem cells and other matters it is physically impossible for him to understand.
EDIT: A number of readers have written to me disagreeing with my characterization of Rush Limbaugh’s comments. Apparently he did not wish for President Obama to “fail” per se, just for his crazy and descructive socialist schemes to not work, for the self-evident reason that they are crazy and destructive policies. Having read his comments myself, I think that’s probably a more accurate analysis of the what the man actually said, whether you agree with him or not.
