Open thread for night owls: Same thing, different week

No matter what day or week it is, there are always ample reminders of just how insincere the majority of our national discourse actually is.

The State Department approved a visa for Mariela Castro Espin (yes, of that Castro family) to visit the U.S. to speak at the Latin American Studies Association, and that was all it took to send certain Republicans into a not-at-all-disingenuous tizzy:

'The State Department needs to wake up from its delusional love fest with the dictators in Havana,' said right-wing House Foreign Affairs chair Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Republican Members of Congress released web videos and organized conference calls denouncing the visa as 'outrageous.'

Even presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney got in on the action, releasing a statement accusing the Obama administration of 'a slap in the face to all those brave individuals in Cuba who are enduring relentless persecution.'

Ros-Lehtinen and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), David Rivera (R-FL) and Albio Sires (D-NJ) wrote a strongly-worded letter to the State Department saying:

The administration's appalling decision to allow regime agents into the U.S. directly contradicts Congressional intent and longstanding U.S. foreign policy.

If it's 'longstanding U.S. foreign policy' to deny Mariela Castro a visa to enter the U.S., someone forgot to tell President George W. Bush. The Bush administration granted Castro not one but three visas to enter the U.S. in 2001 and 2002.

The Bush administration does something? Oh, it's fine. The Obama administration does the same damn thing? Now it's a delusional love fest with dictators. Of course. Whether it's a small, stupid thing (this) or a huge, big-deal thing (health care reform), the easiest way to make sure not one goddamn bit of thought is required to simply decide that all things with one party's name behind them are right, and all the things with the other party's name behind them are wrong. Even'and this is the fine trick of it'if they are in fact the exact same things.

I thought for quite a while on this one, trying to come up with something pithy to say. I didn't succeed. There's not a lot that can be added. It demonstrates once again that lying about things is a major component of so-called political thought; that's hardly new. It demonstrates that from Mitt Romney to Reince Priebus to insert-name-here, nobody in politics really pays attention to what they believe long enough to keep the same opinion twice; again, not new. On the other hand, there was a 10-year difference involved here, which might almost count as impressively consistent, when it comes to the impossibly long list of things that were Just Fine under Bush but no longer Just Fine the moment that other guy won the White House.

Of course, the point of this latest exercise by the outraged members involved is not for anyone to give a flying damn about Mariela Castro Espin. It merely serves as a vehicle for suggesting a "delusional love fest with the dictators in Havana," which apparently is something certain Republicans imagine happening in the state department the moment their backs are turned'or at least, that's what they're hoping their constituents believe? Why? Are these constituents truly dumb as dirt? Is there truly that large a contingent of people out there who need the notion of some imminent, government-sanctioned existential crisis being out there, somewhere, in order to get them through each day? If we were merely discussing normal political issues, like whether or not we should cut food assistance to poor people, or whether Wall Street regulations were sufficient, insufficient, or outright burdensome, would all of these people just be so terribly bored that they would stop participating in politics at all, thus dooming people like Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to (shudder) a life of pandering to much duller, more sensible people? We can only imagine what horrors lie down that path.

So here we go again. Another phony outrage; another attempt to demonstrate that a minor, low-level government action is really a secret conspiracy to something-something-something. Another reason for Mitt Romney to give a few generic comments about something he never heard of before, and will never give a damn about again. Another party-on-party skirmish based on nothing, signifying nothing, accomplishing considerably less than nothing. If a few members of Congress are very, very successful, maybe angry but otherwise dimwitted people will throw a few bucks their way, in order to stop this newest existential menace. Personally, I wish they would give that money to me instead. I could stop that existential menace for a tenth of the cost.

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