Same old song and dance from the GOP

Did the Republican Party and its rabid conservative leaders learn anything after getting pummeled in last November's elections?

Apparently not.

Nearly three months into Barack Obama's presidency, the party and its noise machine are keeping themselves busy trying to find something to howl about every single day. You might think by now the Republicans would have realized that the American people are sick and tired of the GOP's attempts to impugn others by questioning their patriotism. And you might also think that Republicans would have realized that they could strengthen their own popularity by working in good faith with Democrats to bolster our nation's economy.

Unfortunately, you'd be wrong on both counts.

Republicans continue to demonstrate they have nothing to offer the American people. No new ideas, no fresh thinking, no change in attitude. It's just the same old song and dance that we've heard for years from the Graveyard of Progress.

Consider the following examples.

Exhibit A: McCarthyism has returned.

Only these days the enemy isn't "communists", it's "socialists".

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) puts the number of socialists in the House at 17.

"Some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists," Bachus told local government leaders on Thursday, according to the Birmingham News.

Bachus gave the specific number of House socialists when pressed later by a reporter.

Keeping a list of perceived enemies is a sure sign of Nixonian Cold War-era paranoia. Next Bachus will be demanding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi revive the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and name Dick Cheney its Honorary Chairman, with Scooter Libby as Secretary.

Exhibit B: We're all familiar with the discredited lie that President Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in America. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) refuses to believe that the President is an American.

"Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate," Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president."

Speaking of birth certificates, Senator Shelby, we've never seen yours. How do we know for sure you were born in the United States?

Exhibit C: Folks, it's time for another edition of Gods, Guns, and Gays! Your host for this episode is Congressman Steve King, who abhors the idea that two men or two women who love each other should be able to marry.

Not only did he recently manage to unleash a predictable attack on marriage equality, but he slipped in a reference to Islam, utilizing the name a holy Muslim city in Saudi Arabia where pilgrims come annually as a metaphor for Iowa.

Translation: gays coming to Iowa to marry will ruin Steve King's life.

Along with a constitutional amendment, the legislature must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the gay marriage Mecca due to the Supreme Court's latest experiment in social engineering.

Beware the gays... beware the Muslims... beware the gay Muslims?

And now for the second half of our episode. If you're a gun owner and you believe Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, President Obama is stopping by tomorrow to confiscate your guns.

The Obama Administration has revealed its intention to reinstate the so-called "assault" gun ban - Step One of their plan to repeal the 2nd Amendment. [emphasis by Steele]

Haven't we heard this all before, somewhere?

Oh yeah... the last twenty five years of Republican "oratory"!

Republicans don't even have one positive message or idea to offer. Even their proposed budget, if you could call it that, was nothing more than repackaged version of the same bankrupt thinking that got us into the big mess we're in.

If the technology existed, interested observers would be able to teleport back in time and see that the right wing's song and dance remain the same.

Times may have changed but the Republican Party remains parked (by choice!) in the Graveyard of Progress - and there, it seems, they will stay.