Monty Python meets Sotomayor's detractors. Open thread below....

'Nuff said.

So much for the Republicans coming out with a better budget. The rollout was a disaster, NBC’s First Read guys write. “Let’s be honest: Yesterday’s House Republican budget rollout was a P.R. disaster for the GOP. ‘Here it is, Mr. President’ was the title of the GOP Leader blog touting that they had answered Obama’s dare to produce a budget. The problem — their budget rollout didn’t contain any hard budget numbers or deficit projections. They say those hard numbers will come out next week. But now we learn that Reps. Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan objected to unveiling yesterday’s ‘blueprint,’ but were overruled by Reps. John Boehner and Mike Pence. But bigger than any internal disagreements or any criticism about a lack of details is the fact that yesterday’s GOP non-announcement moved the attention away from the Obama-vs.-congressional Democrat storyline to the GOP’s lack of a budget. In fact, after yesterday, the White House and congressional Democrats can agree on one thing: The GOP — at least until next week — is the ‘Party of No.’ What’s more, it puts more pressure on Ryan to truly put out a comprehensive budget alternative; Also, this episode could end up creating a rift in the GOP over how to combat the Obama White House. After all, Senate Republicans wanted nothing to do with an alternative, and now Mitch McConnell, et al are either laughing at their House GOP colleagues, furious at them, or both.”

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The Washington Post manged to bury this at the bottom of their story, but MSNBC happened to notice this little data nugget out of its latest national poll:

There is a warning sign for the GOP in the new poll: 21 percent of those surveyed said they identify as Republicans, the fewest to do so in a Post-ABC poll in more than 25 years. Last fall, Democrats outnumbered Republicans at the polls by the biggest margin in network exit polls going back to the 1982 midterms.

David Shuster and Richard Wolffe discussed it first, then Norah O'Donnell got the Republican perspective from Michelle Bernard.

Shuster and Wolffe note that the exodus has not benefited Democrats, but rather has swollen the ranks of Independents, which is fairly normal. However, Wolffe offers this appraisal:

Wolffe: So people are not self-identifying as Republicans. And for the party to rebuild, that means they've got speak to people beyond the base, the people who may have been at those teabag parties. They've got to reach the people who identify themselves now as Independents. They don't like partisan politics.

I think he's got this completely backwards. Wasn't Wolffe listening to the people at the tea parties? Doesn't he ever watch Glenn Beck? Those people are the new Independents. They're leaving the Republican Party because it isn't far enough to the right.

Bernard, in contrast, actually makes a good deal of sense:

Bernard: Here's the question: Is the Republican Party going to be a Big Tent party, or is it going to be reduced to a geographic area that is made up primarily of evangelical Christians? That's something that the party has to determine. If you want to win elections, the Republican Party as it is today is going to be a party that is very limited and cannot reach national elections until they can get the message of free markets and limited government out. They need to have a new message and find a way to appeal to African Americans, Hispanics, and young voters.

There's that portion of the party, though, that, you know, they don't care. There is a litmus test, and they are not going to change the coalition the way that it stands. And, you know, they've got to find a leader.

In reality, the seeming exodus of the Glenn Beck-style wingnut element from the GOP is a terrific opportunity for smart, sensible Republicans like Bernard. It means they might actually have a chance to really change the Republican Party back into something resembling a sane and serious political party and not an Asylum For the Criminally Insane.

You have to wish them luck. But I'm not holding my breath, either.