In the headlines for weeks has been the showdown in the Senate over filibusters. It’s coming to a head today, with the Republicans working as hard as their crooked little rat brains can to find a way to get their way.

Summed up quite accurately and succinctly by the AP, the issue is this:

For decades, Senate rules have permitted opponents to block votes on judicial nominees by mounting a filibuster, a parliamentary device that can be stopped only by a 60-vote majority.

Now, frustrated by Democratic filibusters that thwarted 10 of Bush’s first-term appeals court nominees and threaten to block seven of them again, Frist and the Republicans hope to supersede that rule, by simple majority vote.

And as is their habit, the Republicans are lying about what’s going on. They’re casting this as a showdown brought on by Democrats taking unprecedented action: filibustering nominees — something that has never been done before!

That’s a lie. A total fabrication.

The Democrats are doing to some of Bush’s more extreme nominees exactly what the Republican’s did to some of Clinton’s back when the Republicans were the minority party. Filibusters are a Senate tradition that have been happening for so long that they made a movie about it back in 19-fucking-39: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart.

It was fine for them to do it when it served their purposes, but now that it’s being done to them they want to — surprise — change the rules to let them win. And of course they’re lying about it, and of course the Red State chowderheads and Fox News are gulping down the KoolAid as fast as they can and asking for more.

Frankly, I don’t care all that much about the filibuster issue, I just think it’s emblematic of what’s happening in GOP-land today: Win at all costs. Just win, baby, and cheat if you have to and steal if you can.

Florida’s actions in the 2000 Presidential election, Texas redistricting in 2003, the thief-in-the-night Ohio ballots last year, the “war” in Iraq, Osama bin Laden, WMDs, “saving” Social Security, etc, etc, etc. The Republicans have proven time and time again that they will stop at nothing to win. And still they have support. Still, there are sites like Instapundit pushing the lies, and hundreds of Insta-wannabes qouting him word for word. It’s baffling.

I swear, I sometimes feel like I’m living in a dream. These people lie, cheat and steal right out in the open — and they’re getting away with it! That’s why I’ve been so silent on the political front lately — I feel like I’m shouting into the void and nobody’s hearing me. It’s so obvious what BushCo is up to and it’s so baffling to me that otherwise intelligent people are actually supporting them! I challenge my conservative/Republican friends on why they support these idiots and they’re completely oblivious to the contradictory rationalizations coming out of their mouths. It’s as though they are willfully turning their brains off.

Feh, enough ranting, and I’m way off my original topic of the latest GOP thievery anyway. But what’s the point? I’ve pointed out the truth here time and time and time and time again and all I get are idiot responses from the conservatives out there that ignore the truth or change the subject. What’s the use? They’ve drunk deep of the KoolAid and don’t see — or care — where we’re heading.