Nature Abhors a Vacuum

By Zamboni

But that's what exists in the Republican Party right now. Which explains why a repellent person like Rush Limbaugh — who also knows what's good for his personal bottom line — can so easily fill it.

What we cats didn't expect in the wake of Limbaugh's outsized behavior was the flaccid response of Republican elected officials.

Just try to picture something for a minute. The terrorists have attacked on September 11, and the nation is in shock. The President speaks before Congress to rally the country. What would have happened if Tom Daschle or the other Democratic leaders had responded to the crisis by saying they hoped Bush would fail? They would have been roundly excoriated as traitors, driven from office, shunned from all society.

Well, of course we don't have to carry that analogy any farther, because the Democrats patriotically rallied around the President. In fact, we cats remember a photo of Daschle and Bush embracing as if they were brothers — never mind that Bush and his party successfully gunned for Daschle's Senate seat three years later.

What today's Republicans don't seem to understand is that we're now engulfed in an economic 9/11. And the American people don't appreciate folks — especially well-fed, incredibly rich folks like Rush Limbaugh — rooting for our President to fail.

So here's our challenge to Republicans: If this fat Limbaugh blowhard is not the head of your party — if you think that his vituperative, self-aggrandizing rhetoric is tearing your party apart — then, repudiate him.

Or, embrace him. One or the other; you can't have it both ways. You must choose.