On the one hand, Lamar’s spot-on:

We live in one of the poorest States in the country, with a crumbling infrastructure, a failing education system, and a coastline that shrinks every day… yet this is the kind of work one of our United States Senators believes we elected him to do.

And then there’s the plain fact that Vitter, if not possessing the anti-Midas touch (like Dubya), is, at least to the rest of the country, a combination clown-show/train-wreck…installing or deferring to him assome sort of group leader makes about as much sense as, say, reminiscing fondly about Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrat movement.

(aside: it makes my head hurt to repeat this, but I still don’t think Vitter will face any serious opposition. Unbelievable. If nothing else, the Democratic Party should run someone, anyone, and adopt a scorched earth strategy in an attempt to politically destroy him. It may not be nice, but as they say, politics ain’t beanbag.)

Anyway–it’s amazing that despite their headlong plunge into the deepest depths of ninnydom, the media still treats the GOP as a viable entity. For instance, Newt Gingrich’s mug shows up on my television screen far too frequently. Rarely–never, in fact–does he get treated with the scorn and derision he roundly deserves. Instead, Newt is taken seriously. When Vitter gets a mention, his whoring is explained away delicately (can anyone imagineMatt Lauer pressing Diaper Dave like he did with Eliot Spitzer?)Pat Buchanan is a fixture on various chatter shows. The whole tea-party nonsense is getting large amounts of free publicity but very little serious scrutiny (mindlessly repeating the “Acorn infiltration” tripe? You’ve gotta be kidding…um, nope.)

It’s as if the crumbling edifice that is the GOP is…getting a bailout, in the form of a massive propping up, from the “librul” press. Go figure