The GOP's Heroic Gas Protest

While all of you were paying attention to Brett Favre dropping an ugly asterisk onto the end of his career, the House GOP has been putting on a three-ring circus on the floor of the Capitol. After the House adjourned for their summer recess at 11:23 a.m. on Friday, a number of the Republican House members who had voted against the adjournment refused to leave the floor and began a quasi-protest against the moratorium on coastal oil drilling.

What started out as a group of about six legislators bashing the Democrats in front of an empty chamber became by the by a raucous party where Congressmen were standing on chairs, parading photographs held high above their heads around the chamber, and inviting guests down onto the House floor to sit in the seats and watch the festivities. Even normally bland local boy Don Manzullo got the spirit.

Ostensibly, the point of the stunt was to bring focus to the Democrats' decision to go on vacation while gas is still nearly $4 a gallon, which is an interesting criticism coming from members of the most astoundingly lazy and inept legislature in the history of the Republic. Still, it was a surprisingly good visual for the Republican Party in a year that has not treated them kindly. They were apparently so pleased with themselves that they have scheduled an encore for Monday.

This sort of pseudo-populist nonsense is what has allowed the GOP to compete in an environment where they are methodically impoverishing those from whom they seek the most loyal and enthusiastic support. It's hardly original, merely a more organic extension of the rousing speeches Newt Gingrich and his cohorts used to give to the C-SPAN cameras after everyone had left for the day.

Stuck running in an environment toxic to their agenda, Republicans have resorted to some pretty strange tactics in order to keep their heads above water. You have to go no further than Senator McCain's latest ads Celeb and The One to see the sort of smears that are being battle-tested in lieu of any substantive avenue of attack. If the field doesn't improve for the party soon, it will be interesting to see where we are by October.

At the same time, it's important to note that what seemed bizarre and harmless back in 1988 had by 1994 become the much more compelling "Contract with America," the pseudo-populist messaging vehicle that drove the Republican Revolution. So while these cheap shots and veiled insinuations may be somewhat exotic and amusing now, it will be interesting to see what they look like after two years of polishing, in 2010.