Obamapublicans: Tea Party lost the election, too

We finance a bloody and expensive war through tax cuts. Earmarks and pork barrel spending reach the skies. The deficit continues to mount. The wealthiest among us and the special interests make out like bandits. The president makes nice with the bankers. The scourge of joblessness plagues the nation.

Am I describing the Bush years with a Republican president and Congress? Yes. Am I describing the Obama years with a Democratic president and Congress? Yes.

The more they promise change, the more things remain the same.

In Washington of 2010 I dub this the year of the Obamapublicans, an insider plutocracy where much is promised but nothing changes.

It turns out the liberals lost the 2008 election, because change we can believe in did not happen. The Tea Party lost the 2010 election as Republican leaders lead the way in their support for more deficits and more pork, the exact opposite of what Tea Party voters supported Republicans to do.

For any liberal who still believes that Obama is a great progressive leader in the tradition of great Democratic presidents, I have some toxic assets to sell you.

For any Tea Party voter who still believes that Republicans who romance the Tea Parties have even a drop of populism of any kind, I have some real estate in Florida to sell you, and I will throw in a free copy of Karl Rove's memoirs.

Meanwhile, Howard Dean may deny it, but he is sounding suspiciously like a presidential candidate who wants to put together a coalition of liberals and independents, a theme I will discuss in depth, soon, in an upcoming column in the paper.

And Michael Bloomberg may deny it, but he is sounding suspiciously like a presidential candidate, a theme I discussed in a recent column that predicted his emergence.

Official Washington now seems like the city of Obamapublicans, where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the middle class gets squeezed, the troops bear the burdens while the deficits mount and the Gilded Age continues.

P.T. Barnum once said: Never give a sucker an even break. The sounds you hear are the liberals fuming, the Tea Partiers burning, the Obamapublicans smiling, the Karl Roves laughing and the same old people counting their same old money as the Kabuki drama continues the same old act.

Sorry, Tea Partiers.

Welcome to the club.