Lew: Shelby’s effort to neutralize Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” measure is but one more piece of evidence on how the Republican Party insists on hurtling itself into the memory-hole of political history. Unlike the Democrats – who at least retain their phony song-and-dance about their concern for the so-called “common man” – the GOP maintains no pretense about any principle beyond serving the establishment power structure. In this bill, Ron – the man most elected Republicans try to distance themselves from – offers the GOP an opportunity to stand for something beyond the derriere-smooching of corporate-state interests. But instead of seeing this as a potential life-saver, Shelby and his gang of drowning men prefer to go down with the sinking ship.

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