FAILURE REDUX

When Thomas Palmer penned, “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again,” he probably assumed people would have the good sense to alter something in that second go. Good sense, though, and the modern Republican Party clearly have no correlation, as those left to exorcize Bush’s demons are seeking advice from the same carrion that should’ve been left to rot under the eternal midday sun of history.

Dana Perino, Tony Fratto and Ed Gillespie aren’t names one would expect to be hearing so soon after the Bush administration fled the voters’ pitchforks last election day, but they have nonetheless been invited to offer how-tos at the annual House Republican press secretaries workshop. Perino—best known for getting hit in the face with a microphone while her boss dodged the latest in Iraqi footwear—and Fratto were mere stooges offering inane sound bites to the press corps as the empire crumbled. But Gillespie, the money-grubbing-lobbyist-turned-money-grubbing-lobbyist-with-keys-to-the candy-store, sat as one of W’s top advisors.

Dems have had a field day mocking the GOP’s choice of lecturers, calling it yet another sign that Republicans are completely clueless.

by SCOTT SAXON