SHOCKED, SHOCKED

I guess I'm enjoying the GOP's embarrassment at that story about an RNC find-raising slideshow that included this:



But this is a story only because it contradicts a ridiculous myth, which is that there exists some difference between that GOP and the "real" GOP. In reality, there's no difference whatsoever. Movement conservatism has been erasing the distinction for years.

Caricatures of Democratic leaders come from talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh -- who, of course, was made an honorary member of the GOP's 1994 congressional freshman class, after the Gingrichites won enough seats to take over both houses. The Bush White House had a "Radio Day" in 2006 in which right-wing talkers broadcast from the White House grounds (here's Sean Hannity interviewing Dick Cheney on Radio Day).

More recently, in just the past month, it's been widely assumed that the next GOP presidential candidate may well have spoken at this year's CPAC confab -- which featured a Nancy Pelosi pinata, a guy in a drag fat suit posing as Janet Napolitano, sumo wrestler, and other entertainments that make the fund-raising slideshow look tame (not to mention incitements to violence by speakers who included at least one presidential hopeful). And the Republican who just won reelection as Texas governor did so after talking secession, and there's been no attempt whatsoever to distance the national party from the election outcome -- on the contrary, various "great mentioners" are touting Rick Perry as a possible presidential candidate for the party.

So why are we maintaining the fiction that there's a Republican Party that doesn't believe, or at least embrace, the thinking represented by the slide above? Why can't the political world acknowledge what the Republican Party really is right now?