What to do when someone beats you to your best stuff

As I'm finishing up mowing my grass today, I came up with the perfect analogy to describe the republican party with, after last night's antics. So I'm rushing to get everything done, put the mower away, open up the laptop...and then I see in my RSS reader that someone already beat me to it...

[A]s Joe Wilson's outburst last night made clear, [the GOP] is the party of the College Republicans.

Damn you Sully and your readers!!!

So I'll take this off in a slightly different, but still accurate and slightly scary, direction. For the past year, I've believed that the Tea Party has been owned by the republican party. After watching the behavior of republican party congresspeople during the president's speech, I'm now beginning to think that the Tea Party is starting to own the republican party.

Think about it. Anyone that was at the Democratic Forum health care town hall last week can relate to me saying that I had the same feeling when Wilson screamed that the president was a liar, as I did when a random teabagger yelled out that something Driehaus said wasn't true (the man later yelled that he had written a book, which clearly wasn't true since the man was no older than 45, and Goodnight Moon was written in 1947). And it wasn't just Wilson's outburst; there was a significant amount of snickering and disagreement through parts of the speech, not to mention the "what bill?" sign held us by another congressman.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't ever remember a sitting member of Congress behaving in the manner that Wilson, or some of his compatriots, did during a presidential address. I'd expect this kind of behavior from average everyday protestors. Members of Congress ought to be able to handle themselves with more composure than them.

Ultimately, this may end up being beneficial for the Dems. While the president was speaking to Congress in a reasoned tone, making his case for reform, the GOP'ers were acting like children. Screaming out, holding up signs, murmuring, giving each other titty twisters. In front of the nation, 32 million American viewers saw a president and a party that wants to get things done and fix a broken system, and they saw that the other party simply isn't serious about even listening to ideas on how to fix it.

Michelle Cottle at The New Republic said a few months back, "I've given up hope for a loyal opposition. I'd settle for a sane one." Absent sanity, I'd be willing to settle for a mature one. I won't hold my breath.