“Somebody explain this to me: The president of the United States wins the Nobel Peace Prize and Rush Limbaugh joins with the Taliban in bitterly denouncing the award? Glenn Beck has a conniption fit and demands that the president not accept what may be the world’s most prestigious honor? The Republican National Committee issues a statement sarcastically mocking our nation’s leader — elected, you will recall, by a healthy majority — as unworthy of such recognition?”

This is the first paragraph of an insightful Washington Post column by Eugene Robinson, who also notes that many of the saner Republicans, including John McCain, individually congratulated Obama for his Nobel Peace Prize win.

Robinson also mentions conservatives’ reactions to “Hanoi Jane” back in the early 1970s, which equated siding with America’s enemies with treason. To me, right or left, treason is treason.

I was angry with Jane Fonda when she was supporting our enemies, and I am just as angry with Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the Republican National Committee for doing the same thing today.

We need a “principled opposition” to make our political system work correctly. It is sad that the Republican Party, as an institution, has decided not to be that principled opposition, but has decided instead to make its theme song Yowlers on the Fringe, sung to the tune of the Doors song, Riders on the Storm.

Once again, all I can do is sigh, “Oh, my poor country.”

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