Do the Republicans have a plan?

Good question! One of the odder aspects of American politics – at least for foreigners used to the rough and tumble of the House of Commons – is the elevation of bispartisanship to the status of some kind of political sacrament. A cynic would say that the principle motivation for this is to ensure that blame is shared between the parties, not hogged by whomever happens to be in the majority at any given moment. I always have the feeling, mind you, that respectable opinion in DC finds partisanship both excessive and, worse, rather vulgar.

(To be more precise: polite society finds Democratic partisanship especially vulgar; since 1994 and the departure of all those nice, north-eastern Republicans, it has reconciled itself to the fact that, alas, the GOP are a bunch of rednecks and yahoos with no sense of or feel for the way things ought to be done in the capital.