Dumb As a Box of Rocks

That would describe my assessment of establishment Republicans headed to a posh Waikiki hotel this week to discuss upcoming political strategy.

There are apparently no convention halls or two star hotels available in America's midlands. There are no foam swept beaches on the Gulf Coast. There ain't a cash bar anywhere here in Michigan.

When it comes to schmoozing and knocking back a couple of highballs, nothing will suffice like an exclusive tropical resort hotel, especially when the loudest buzz surrounding the event will concern the election of Scott Brown. There will be the clanking of many glasses to toasts of "We won!" and "We're back!"

Establishment Republicans are misreading, of course, the events in Massachusetts and the palpable disgust with our rulers in Washington these days. The people are running from debt and extravagance and from the opaqueness of government. The voters are long tired of lies, obfuscation, and politicians that would sell their souls for another win at the ballot box.

I know that this sojourn to Hawaii is primarily for work. I know that it was planned prior to Brown's election. I know too that a national party has to spread its interest to all fifty states. Yet, there is something that peals of tone deafness with this working escape to the beaches of Oahu.

Will the GOP get its best bang for the buck in Honolulu? Will there be lavishness slathered upon attendees while the country faces a financial crisis? Will even the wholly imagined image of GOP strategists sunning themselves on the beaches (while former taxpayers hit the unemployment office) provide the example that indicates to voters that the party of Bush even cares to understand the messages delivered by the voters of 2008 and 2009?

It appears as if the voters in Virginia and New Jersey and Massachusetts have only started to scratch the surface of the ignorant coating that wraps our oblivious politicians. It is going to take many more elections to get the message to penetrate into their thick hammer-like skulls.