Aren't Republicans lame?

Those gutless, heartless wonders sat on their hands for most of the Obama speech, including the part about new bank taxes. That might turn out to be a questionable strategy - aren't they going after the angry populist crowd who want to see those big, mean bankers go to jail? When Obama mentioned his bank proposal, the pool camera cut to the Republicans sitting there like lumps. An influential Democrat emailed Megan McArdle: "The footage of every R sitting when Obama talked about bank tax is going into every ad we do in 2010." Not that I'm especially thrilled about the bank tax - we shouldn't be proposing short-term fixes when long-term re-regulating is in order. But this isn't really about conflicting tax philosophies. This is about lawmakers - and the president - turning the narrative into a language of dumb and dumber. And here is Obama, who has never let anyone see him sweat, desperately pumping water out of the boat while Republicans seem quite willing to watch the thing sink, no matter how many lives it costs. Understand, these are still the Karl Rove Republicans. Here's what he wrote in the WSJ about Obama's proposed spending freeze:

To present such a proposal as a serious attempt at restraining spending is to reveal a low opinion of the intelligence of ordinary Americans.

Andrew Sullivan's retort:

In the end, all you can do is marvel at the vileness of such people, their total lack of any shame, sense of accountability, responsibility or honesty. Rove will advise Republicans to oppose any tax increases and to blame all spending cuts on Democrats if the debt commission comes through.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl was especially venomous this morning on NPR. His chief complaint: The speech was too political. Seriously - and he was angry about it. Also, did you notice the smirks coming from House Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor? So lame.

Photo: AP