…and of course right after I finally leap into the fray and say something about it, the Democrats roll over and cut a deal that gives the Republicans A) most of what they wanted, B) momentum, and C) ammunition to use against the Dems the next time the Repubs want to step over the line.

The Republicans were threatening to take the no-more-filibusters thing to a vote, and there’s a good chance they didn’t have the votes to win. There were actually Republicans who didn’t like the idea and who may well have voted against it. Clearer heads — and the Democrats — might have actually prevailed on this issue. So what did the Democrats do? They blinked. They agreed to a “compromise” that A) lets 3 of the 5 nominees they were filibustering go to a vote and B) basically ties their hands against filibustering future nominees.

Way to stand up, boys, way to stare them down.

As much as I despise the Republicans, I am even more embarrassed by the Democrats. And yet for someone like me who thinks we’re going to hell in a handbasket, they’re the only game in town because they’re the biggest of the not-GOP parties and thus have the best chance of prevailing. Sad, just sad.

Today’s Democratic party is a limp noodle, a clammy handshake, a soft boner. They’re the four-eyed outfielder afraid of the pop-fly ball, the dog that rolls over and pees on itself when confronted, the geek who gets wedgied and stuffed in his locker at Gym class. I could list analogies and metaphors about them for days and still not come close to explaining the contempt I feel for my party these days.

That’s why I like Howard Dean. He may be crazier than a shit-house rat but that motherfucker will stand up and say something. We need more politicians like him who are willing to stand up and call “Bullshit” and do what’s right. Playing not to offend clearly isn’t working, and in fact looking at what the Republicans are doing you could argue that offending people is what actually does work.

I’d give anything for a Democrat with a spine. And while I’m giving away the farm in exchange for vertebrae, I’d also give anything for a press that actually does their job. The Rethuglicans piss and moan about the “MSM” (MainStream Media, for those of you who aren’t sucking the Fox News MSM tit) and its supposed liberal bias, but in fact the press is as cowardly as the Dems have been about calling BushCo on their bullshit. If we had a press that was really telling the whole story instead of regurgitating White House news releases and talking points that they occasionally shade with obliquely critical adjectives, the Republicans would be frozen in their tracks at being caught with their hands in the cookie jar and the American people would be storming the White House with pitchforks and torches.

Up there at the top right of this page is my “About” section, where I have it set to cycle through a variety of descriptions. One of them is “Silent in Gehenna.” That’s the title of a short story by Harlan Ellison (one of my all-time favorite authors) about a revolutionary who ends up suspended in a cage with a bullhorn above a public street on an alien world, yelling at the aliens to “rise up, throw off the bonds of your oppressors” — and being ignored. He is the voice of their conscience and they don’t listen. That’s me in my political posts here: yelling the truth into a not-listening void.

In the headlines for weeks has been the showdown in the Senate over filibusters. It’s coming to a head today, with the Republicans working as hard as their crooked little rat brains can to find a way to get their way.

Summed up quite accurately and succinctly by the AP, the issue is this:

For decades, Senate rules have permitted opponents to block votes on judicial nominees by mounting a filibuster, a parliamentary device that can be stopped only by a 60-vote majority.

Now, frustrated by Democratic filibusters that thwarted 10 of Bush’s first-term appeals court nominees and threaten to block seven of them again, Frist and the Republicans hope to supersede that rule, by simple majority vote.

And as is their habit, the Republicans are lying about what’s going on. They’re casting this as a showdown brought on by Democrats taking unprecedented action: filibustering nominees — something that has never been done before!

That’s a lie. A total fabrication.

The Democrats are doing to some of Bush’s more extreme nominees exactly what the Republican’s did to some of Clinton’s back when the Republicans were the minority party. Filibusters are a Senate tradition that have been happening for so long that they made a movie about it back in 19-fucking-39: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart.

It was fine for them to do it when it served their purposes, but now that it’s being done to them they want to — surprise — change the rules to let them win. And of course they’re lying about it, and of course the Red State chowderheads and Fox News are gulping down the KoolAid as fast as they can and asking for more.

Frankly, I don’t care all that much about the filibuster issue, I just think it’s emblematic of what’s happening in GOP-land today: Win at all costs. Just win, baby, and cheat if you have to and steal if you can.

Florida’s actions in the 2000 Presidential election, Texas redistricting in 2003, the thief-in-the-night Ohio ballots last year, the “war” in Iraq, Osama bin Laden, WMDs, “saving” Social Security, etc, etc, etc. The Republicans have proven time and time again that they will stop at nothing to win. And still they have support. Still, there are sites like Instapundit pushing the lies, and hundreds of Insta-wannabes qouting him word for word. It’s baffling.

I swear, I sometimes feel like I’m living in a dream. These people lie, cheat and steal right out in the open — and they’re getting away with it! That’s why I’ve been so silent on the political front lately — I feel like I’m shouting into the void and nobody’s hearing me. It’s so obvious what BushCo is up to and it’s so baffling to me that otherwise intelligent people are actually supporting them! I challenge my conservative/Republican friends on why they support these idiots and they’re completely oblivious to the contradictory rationalizations coming out of their mouths. It’s as though they are willfully turning their brains off.

Feh, enough ranting, and I’m way off my original topic of the latest GOP thievery anyway. But what’s the point? I’ve pointed out the truth here time and time and time and time again and all I get are idiot responses from the conservatives out there that ignore the truth or change the subject. What’s the use? They’ve drunk deep of the KoolAid and don’t see — or care — where we’re heading.