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Steve M. has a very valid point here that for the GOP fat cats pulling the levers of power in the party, what they want most out of a nominee for President is a compliant, spineless idiot who can make the sale.  Eight years of George W. Bush was pure bliss for them.  Now they want Mitt Romney to finish the deal.  Anyone who expects a Romney administration to pivot to the center is in for a shock.  Grover Norquist and his tax cuts uber alles goons are already bragging about pulling his strings.

The principal piece of "legislation that has already been prepared," and that Romney would rubber-stamp, is, according to Norquist, the Paul Ryan budget.

I find that entirely plausible. It exactly matches the M.O. of all the GOP governors who got elected in 2010: Get in and start enacting the agenda before the voters know what hit them. (And, yes, I know that doing this got most of the Teabag Year Zero governors into trouble with the voters, but I'm not sure their demise is guaranteed, and I'm not sure they care in any case. I'm sure the Kochs and their allies will take care of all of them if they get big chunks of the wingnut agenda enacted and then lose office via electoral defeat or recall.)

Let's recall under Bush, we took a surplus and spent it into complete oblivion through tax cuts and war spending, a deadly combination that completely broke our economy in roughly six years.  Now they want to double down on those same policies and finish the job with their plan to starve out the federal government.

But notice that when it comes right down to it, Norquist may not have the kind of control over the GOP he thinks he does.  Orange Julius completely bailed yesterday on offsetting the payroll tax cut with spending cuts, and now Old-Age Mutant Nimrod Turtle Mitch McConnell is saying hes not happy with the idea at all.  Norquist wants to see both types of cuts, not one or the other.

But I certainly wouldn't expect Mitt Romney to stand up to Norquist.  Not after this.  Neither should any voters expect that either.

Also, I'm soooooo keeping "Old-Age Mutant Nimrod Turtle" as Mitch McConnell's tag now.