Judd Gregg — Is This Just a Bad Dream?

OK, this is absolutely true. Ask my wife — I told her this morning about the dream I had last night.

I woke up with that cold sweat. Why? I dreamt that I was in Florida at a great big Southern mansion, with a wide porch that kept wrapping around and around. Lots of people, food, activity. What was happening? Rush Limbaugh was broadcasting and pulling me into his usual diatribe. Trouble was, it was all his audience of ditto-heads who were glaring at me and shouting cat-calls. I was blasting back. What possessed me to enter into this back-and-forth with Limbaugh on his turf? Who knows?

As I left, I put my hands in my pockets and lo and behold, my wallet had been lifted by one of his cronies. When I woke up from this dream it occurred to me that maybe I was truly afraid that the Limbaughs and Hannitys and O’Reillys were doing everything in their power to sink this economy and cause more havoc to working Americans. As if they hadn’t done enough to get us into the Book of World Records taking the greatest surpluses and turning them into the greatest deficits — even forcing the country into the greatest recession in 80 years. Wanting Barack Obama to fail, of course, so they could gain some sort of political advantage.

Now, I can’t believe the bizarre dream-like situation of Judd Gregg. All I can make of it is that the Republican cohort of extreme right-wingers got to him and convinced him to change his mind. After all, he knew where Obama stood on the economy, on taxes, on spending. He knew where the stimulus package was going weeks ago. He knew the campaign promises inside and out. Sen. Gregg is no babe in the woods when it comes to Washington. He made the overture to the Obama administration for the job of secretary of Commerce.

He was pushed out by his own party, really, and that says something about this breed.

Too bad the Republicans have cast pragmatism and common sense and Judd Gregg to the political winds. This is the Rush Limbaugh party now, folks — don’t kid yourself. But thank goodness I still have my wallet. It was just a dream. Or was it?