Deep within the bowels of Congress, there is a heavily fortified area reserved exclusively for the use of Republican senators and congresspersons. Built with secret funds during the Bush/Cheney reign, it was modeled on the "Green Zone" in Baghdad were Bush loyalists were secure from the everyday suicide bombings, IED's, and especially the rabble known as the average Iraqi. From this bunker, they could control the entire war as well as the puppet government they had created. The internal areas were heavily sound-proofed lest any voice of dissent or, far worse, voice of reason interfere with their operations. The purpose of its simulacrum in Washington is not terribly dissimilar.
While not needing to be shielded from the threat of imminent death raining down upon their heads, the Republicans, in what they smirkingly refer to as the "Mean Zone", use the area as a buffer between themselves and the rest of the American people including members of their own party. Not able to hear the voices of dissent and contradiction against their newest war plan, i.e., the destruction of the Obama presidency, they can appear before the cameras and microphones and say with perfectly straight faces (Graham and Cantor excluded) that they and they alone can determine the economic fate of the nation. The result of this self-imposed isolation has led to a form of ideological in-breeding causing their distorted self-serving views to be passed from person to person like some form of mental venereal disease.
And with each successive election cycle their numbers are diminished causing an even more dangerous strain of this illness to develop. Just like it's physical cousin, syphilis, this disease eventually destroys the brain and leads to delusional anti-social behavior. Their actions over the last few weeks prove without a doubt that the disease is totally out of control. In addition, they have developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder which causes them to respond in the negative to all thoughts or ideas not generated within the zone.
While this may seem like the death knell of the Republican party, there is a ray of hope for those still not infected. It seems there is a group of Republican governors who have developed an immunity to the disease. While they do not believe that a cure can be found for their brethren in the Zone, they do believe that once the disease reaches its climax and the Zonies are all barking mad, the governors stand ready to replace them with the younger generation who have become immune to the disease. When that happens, the Republicans will once again be able to come together with the Democrats in the Congress and truly act in the interest of the common weal.
I think that day is a long ways off. But keep hope alive.