It's the "Republicant Party"

For years, even decades, now Republicans have flaunted their ignorance to flout the Democratic Party by calling it the "Democrat Party". It's bad grammar, it's bad manners and it's a childish thing.

But it does bug many Democrats and lovers of English and civility. We don't have to just take it but we can respond with cutting humor: "The Republicant Party."

There have been some fine pushback as of late. The ever feisty Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) took Rep Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) to task for playing the silly name game. She politely and firmly pointed out we don't refer to the Republican Party as the "Republic Party."

Chris Matthews asked Republican Rep Daryl Issa (R-WTF) to "save that for the stump" with the petty name mangling. After Issa's trip to the woodshed, Rep Barney Frank joked he wouldn't hold it against his friend from the "Republicanistical Party."

Others have had fun with ripostes like "Rethugs" and "Repubes" and others. (I've always thought there should be some way to work "Reptilian" in there, as it's very appropriate).

But for my tastes nothing gets the message across like "Republicant Party." Republicant captures the stingy, austere, backward-looking orientation of this party who keeps demanding we follow their economic advice after they ran the country into the ditch.

Whenever I hear "Democrat Party," I will respond with "Republicant Party."

A Bipartisan Tale

I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which critter is Republican and which is the Democrat. No prizes.

One day, a traveling scorpion came upon a river that ran wide and swift. He couldn't see any way across, upriver or downriver. The scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation.

He noticed a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over and the scorpion crawled onto the frog's back and the frog slid into the river. The water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the his back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the waters of the swiftly flowing river.

Republicans still in the driver's seat?

You have to hope there's a grand play at work in the economic recovery plan. Josh Marshall notes:

And yet the desire to get a substantial number of Republicans to vote for the bill appears to be having a big impact on the proposal's size and shape. Quite likely, leaving it too small and too tilted toward tax cuts to get the job done.

Paul Krugman and others have shown the current plans for the stimulus are not keeping up with the growing crater left by Republican policies. As Krugman shows, economic output is down by 8% but plans will only cover 3%.

We're hemorrhaging 1/2 million jobs per month now - but the Republicans are obsessed with defending their ideology and the Democrats are obessessing with pleasing Republicans.

Hopefully, that's not all there is to the plan.

Reach for the anchor

Bush's popularity is at 22%.
70% of the American people - a new record - disapprove.

Republicans are drowning. Quick, someone throw them an anchor.