Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Although I understood that when George W. Bush was in the White House and the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, America did not enter the state of Nirvana. Far from it. Bush banned incandescent bulbs; wasted fifteen billion dollars fighting AIDS on a continent where those suffering from the disease were convinced that the surest cure was having sex with a young virgin; and micromanaged the war in Iraq by insisting that we re-build every structure a minute after either we or the enemy had knocked it down.

In the meantime, Republican senators fluttered their collective eyelashes at Ted Kennedy, hoping in their girlish hearts that he would invite them to the senior prom.

I had assumed that after the shellacking they took over the next few years, they had learned their lesson. But, obviously, I was mistaken. Mea culpa.

Over the past 52 months, the Republicans have taken back 14 seats in the Senate and over 70 in the House, and yet they have once again assumed the role they clearly find most comfortable; namely, serving as geishas for the Democrats.

In the Senate, McConnell refuses to use any of the weapons against the Democrats that Harry Reid used so effectively against the Republicans, so that, for all intents and purposes, the Democrats are still in control. Making matters worse, we have Senators Flake, Hatch and Graham, voting to confirm Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder’s hand-picked successor at the Justice Department, even though she has already testified at her confirmation hearing that she regarded Obama’s executive amnesty to be constitutional.

Then, when rookie Senator Tom Cotton campaigned to get his fellow Republicans to send a letter to Iran’s theocratic despot, letting the Ayatollah Khamenei know that if he signed a nuclear agreement with Obama, absent Senate approval, it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on, he couldn’t even muster a simple majority. In case you’re wondering about the identities of the seven sniveling holdouts, they are, in alphabetical order, Lamar Alexander (TN), Dan Coats (IN), Thad Cochran (MS), Susan Collins (ME), Tom Corker (TN), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Lisa Murkoski (AK).

An interesting aspect of the rumored treaty with Iran is that, at the very least, they will be able to pursue nuclear energy to their heart’s content, which is more than the liberals, taking their marching orders from environmental zealots, will allow us to do. How is it we’re not insisting that Iran start relying on solar panels and windmills for its energy needs?

Although nuclear energy is cheap, available and safe, and would make us energy independent for the foreseeable future, we haven’t built a nuclear plant since the 1970s. Perhaps if America could go to Switzerland and negotiate with John Kerry we, too, could start building centrifuges for peaceful purposes.

It is delightful to watch Hillary Clinton swing in the breeze and endlessly amusing to watch her defenders circle the wagons and try to ward off the arrows, but I can’t help wondering about those pathetic excuses for human beings. I mean, really, when long time Clinton consiglieres like James Carville and Lanny Davis respond to every scandal swirling around Hillary and Bill like traffic cops at a traffic accident (“Move along, folks, nothing to see here”), are they not aware that it’s 25 years too late to protect the reputations of these latter-day Borgias, and that all they’re doing is further trashing their own?

Someone recently sent me a note that asked a legitimate question: If gender is no longer determined by genitalia, why is race still determined by skin color?

In a day in which people are encouraged to use any public bathroom they personally feel is appropriate, why is it that people like Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Al Sharpton, are concerned with what they perceive to be injustices only when the alleged victim happens to be the same color they are?

Another reader corrected me when I attributed the offensive term “compassionate conservative” to George W. Bush rather than to his father. In response, I wrote, “Thank you for setting me straight. By way of explanation, I can only say that my wife and I had two male Maltese dogs prior to acquiring Angel. As a result, we often confuse Duke with Sammy when we reminisce about them. I find I have a similar problem when it comes to the two Bushes, which is part of the reason I am so reluctant to see us saddled with yet a third.”

Recently, there was a minor shakeup at the talk radio station to which my car radio is pre-set. As a result, Mark Levin has been added at a time I am most often driving. Frankly, I was shocked. You see, I was familiar with him, having read one of his books, but I had never heard him speak. Although our politics are quite similar, I confess I find his voice extremely annoying. To my ear, he comes across as so mouse-like, he almost squeaks.

I am therefore ready to conduct yet another Prelutsky Poll. Please let me know which radio talk show host you like best and which one you like least. Please limit your votes to one of each and place your choices in the Subject Line. If you wish to add commentary or defend Mr. Levin’s voice, I’d appreciate it if you would place that in the body of your email.

The sooner you vote at [email protected], the sooner I can announce the results.