It's sad, but I don't think it's a problem. "President Obama wants an Attorney General ready to secure justice in the world of today. Senate Republicans are more concerned with revisiting controversies from the previous century.'

Is there any better way for Republicans to secure their reputation as the party of the past?

As I recall, keeping Elian away from his father wasn't much more popular, even among Republicans, than the Terri Schiavo stunt. That said, I'm sure the media will be showing the picture of the FBI guy with the gun far more frequently than the one of Elian hugging his father before returning to Cuba.

Danp,

You are correct when you say keeping the kid away from his father was unpopular. Moreover, there was a backlash against the Miami relatives.

How long will it be before the Republican Party calls for the annulment of General Lee's surrender?

Seeking information about Gonzales suggests Republicans are seeking issues that will resonate outside the Beltway, unlike the Rich pardon.
How about a return to the Gold Standard? Or maybe they could re-open the investigation into the crash of the Hindenburg. Did Vince Foster really commit suicide?
Not that they're trying to distract our attention from the fact that Republican governance has brought the country to the brink of disaster.

Probably a desperation money pitch to the paleolithic die-hards still raging over Waco, Elian the Magic Dolphin Boy and Marc What's His Name.

The RNC would probably rather forego the Magical 90's Retour, but party discipline seems to have gone over the side--it's Raft of the Medusa time for the GOP.

but steve! sure it's pathetic, but it's all they've got!

Oh boy. I guess we can look foreward to a replay of Terri Schaivo in a couple years. I can hardly wait.

All this shows is that they ain't got nothing. This is a fishing expedition, pure and simple.

Typical of Repubs. Always "Party before Country".

Actually, Tomeck, I wouldn't mind seeing the South go it's own way again. It's the only place left, along with Idaho, that those GOP freaks are taken seriously.

Doubt that we'll hear much about Schaivo from the less intellectually challenged thugs. That case really hurt the right.

It was the wrong choice but it's in the past now, and weren't they forced to by existing laws?

MNPundit wrote, It was the wrong choice but it's in the past now, and weren't they forced to by existing laws?

If you're referring to the E.G. affair, how is returning a child to his lawful father "the wrong choice"?

Dennis-SGMM suggests " Or maybe they could re-open the investigation into the crash of the Hindenburg."

According to a PBS program "Secrets of the Dead" that was on a few years ago, the German government did its own investigation - a scientific/engineering one, compared with the political brou ha-ha done in the US - and figured out the problem: The envelope of the dirigible had been painted with a "dope" containing powdered aluminum and iron, highly reactive materials, particularly when mixed together (i.e. thermite). When the ship traveled through a thunderstorm, it became electrically charged. The mooring lines, designed to allow the ship to ground, were inadequate because there was not electrical conductivity between all the separate cloth panels of the envelope. The static caused a spark, which set some of the panels on fire (from the outside) - this burned through and the hydrogen ignited.

For more detail, see the Secrets of the Dead website.

Of course, all this remained a mystery in the US.

Hard to imagine how revisiting the EG controversy would play well for the Rethugs - especially to anyone even remotely concerned with father's rights. I think this one would backfire in much the same way as Terry Schiavo did and for that reason I hope they go after it with gusto.

This seems like a good time to bring up the parable of the 'hairy arm'. It goes like this:

In the middle ages, there was a portrait painter to catered to the rich and powerful. What he found was that, no matter how hard he tried, his portraits were never quite good enough. His clients would always make him repaint large parts of the portrait.

So what he did was to start putting a big ugly hair on the arm of the person he was painting. They would see the hair right off and make him change it (which was quite easy, since he was planning on it anyways). The client would then have had their say and go away happy.

Perhaps Eric Holder is the hairy arm? He can deflect attention from other appointees, go down, and be replaced with someone better (Fitz for AG!)

As I recall, keeping Elian away from his father wasn't much more popular, even among Republicans,

That's my recollection. So I'm happy to see the GOP leadership try to make an issue of this again.

Maybe they can bring Marisleysis Gonzalez to testify so she can pass out again.

This doesn't border on pathetic--it IS pathetic. The Republicans have got to start focusing on issues that are important to Americans everyday--like health care and the economy. All you see them doing is obsructing and distracting, nothing constructive. No "bordering on" about it, they are swimming out to the middle of the pathetic pool.

It's not sad or pathetic - it's evil. It's party over country every time with those people and it's not something to feel sympathy for because they're pathetic. It's something to expose and crush with prejudice.

Oh boy. I guess we can look foreward to a replay of Terri Schaivo in a couple years. I can hardly wait.

That's exactly what my husband said when I told him this story. I wonder which other fiascoes of the past 20 years the Republicans will try to drag up again. Maybe they can re-impeach Bill Clinton for getting another blowjob.

I for one would be quite happy to revise our welfare system. It seems to me that too many people with more money than they know what to do with are dependent on the US Treasury. Talking to you CEO's of Goldman Sachs, AIG, banks too numerous to name, Boeing, Northrop, Blackwater, General Dynamics, General Electric, Carlysle, hedge funds too numerous to name...

But somehow I don't think that is quite what Mike Pence had in mind.

Of course, if someone wanted to defeat this in the press, all they would have to do is come up with some mother who got her children back on an international custody case. Situation forgotten.

I can assure that there is one constituency, and one that probably is mainly Republican, that sees absolutely nothing wrong with Elian being reunited with his father. That constituency is the multitude of divorced fathers who are not allowed to interact with their kids because the mother got custody and has devoted herself to "getting even" with her ex by denying the kids any substantive relationship with their father. The Republicans need to think about this long and hard or they just may lose some support.

Wow. You gotcher forward-looking President, and yer backward-looking opposition. Was there ever a clearer choice?

(Those guys are now officially caricatures of themselves.)

G Powell

I mostly agree with letting them secede but I'd hate to see slavery re-established. I say we just take away their voting rights again and send in the troops to maintain order.

I must make myself totally clear:

I do NOT support the re-establishment of slavery nor Jim Crow. And I am very happy to see the end of the Southern domination of American politics.

I guess when you have nothing to offer for the here and now, or nothing to offer for the future, you reach back to the past. It's a sad thing to watch (I'm just being nice).

"Pathetic" seems to be the only border with Cuba that Republicans are able to cross.

The modern GOP: Building a bridge to the 20th century.