Message discipline really isn't the problem

GOP strategists, not surprisingly, can feel the bottom of the pool with their toes.

Bottom, of course, is a subjective term. But most Republican strategists claim to see at least a few signs of new life, even if a spring awakening is still a ways a way. "The last few months have not been so hot for us, but our guys understand that and they are working on a way out of it," says Ron Bonjean, a strategist to GOP House and Senate leadership. After losing the House in 1994, Democrats took more than a decade to form an effective opposition; even with the advantage of a Democrat in the White House until 2001, Bonjean notes, they were unable to present a united front until President Bush's second term. "We'll know the GOP is firing on all cylinders when both the House and Senate leaders and members are all saying the same thing."

If that's their strategy, then they've got a fer bit longer to go down the road to irrelevancy. Because "saying the same thing" isn't the problem for the GOP. In fact, they are pretty much saying the same things. I mean look at these geniuses. The problem is that what they're saying generally falls into four broad categories: dumb, a lie, irrelevant , or insane.

The problem is not message discipline, it's message. Period.