We now know the precise number of safe Republican pols in these here United States, and that number comes in at less than double digits. It is, precisely, nine: four now sit in the House -- Ron Paul of Texas, Walter Jones of North Carolina, David McKinley of West Virginia and Denny Rehberg of Montana; and five are in the Senate -- Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and another Paul, this one Rand, of Kentucky.
This is not to say that all the above are guaranteed reelection or further elevation; only that these nine Republicans, and these nine alone, are unassailable when it comes to villagers protesting what is now not merely the Ryan plan, and not just the House Plan, but yea, verily, the Republican Plan to abolish Medicare.
Pundits are racing hither and yon to cover their forecasting butts: "Remember, folks," or so goes the new conventional wisdom, "that New York district means a 2012 Republican pounding not." Which would be true, if that New York district weren't redder than a New Orleans whorehouse.
No, Republicans are unquestionably the poundees; the only question remaining is the skill with which the Democratic pounders perform said pounding. Just as unquestionable is that 2012 has already contoured as a national election -- even more so than 1994 or 2010 -- yet there's the perilously atomistic mind of Democratic incumbents and challengers: they -- or so they so often believe -- can do better on their own, with their localized message, even though rescuing the nation's federal safety net is as national a message as a presidential election year could ever hear.
Some hearts quiver and quake when Congress convenes; my heart does the same only when Democrats campaign for it.
Meanwhile, we've always the GOP presidential guessing game to amuse ourselves. No, not the one about the eventual nominee -- which will be Romney, Pawlenty or Huntsman, all essentially indistinguishable -- but the one about where, from day to day, the current crop of contenders stands on the official Republican plan to abolish Medicare.