Party Foul

By Bill Maher

I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what's philosophically wrong with Republicans. It's like asking what's intellectually wrong with lobsters. But Jon Huntsman (who's what you'd get if Mitt Romney had a baby with Anderson Cooper) said something interesting while we were off, in England's Daily Telegraph:

"The party right now is a holding company that's devoid of a soul and it will be filled up with ideas over time and leaders will take their proper place. We can't be known as a party that's fear-based and doesn't believe in math. In the end it will come down to a party that believes in opportunity for all our people, economic competitiveness and a strong dose of libertarianism."

Huntsman once told the Huffington Post that Republicans seem to want to:

"... thwart the opposition, stymie the opposition, obfuscate, be a flamethrower, go out there and destroy the system, and here we are."

You put those couple of thoughts together, and I think that's a pretty good description of the GOP position on the debt ceiling. Destroy the System/Don't Do Math. It's not a political party. It's Rock 'n' Roll High School.

Speaking of exactly the same thing (plus racism), Colin Powell was on Meet the Press Sunday, to borrow David Gregory's gun clip, and say the GOP has its head up its ass.

Powell: "There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities."

No shit, General Sherlock. Now, I don't know why Colin Powell is a Republican any more than I understand why Andrew Sullivan says he's a Catholic. But Powell says he's a Republican, and he says they've got a secret problem, and he's the guy who said Iraq had nukes, so he knows things and we should listen to him.