As it approaches its rendezvous with the fiscal cliff, the Republican Party in Washington shows all the signs of a national nervous breakdown.

Its majority in the House of Representatives acts like an outnumbered, already-beaten rabble, with would-be moderates and tea party conservatives pointing rhetorical fingers at one another and exchanging charges akin to treason on the issue of taxes.

Earlier, these same House Republicans were compelled to undo an embarrassing mistake in handing out top committee assignments — not one went to a woman. Only when the oversight was pointed did they move lickety-split with a remedy — the appointment of one woman to chair a minor committee.

When you consider the shellacking Republicans as a whole took from women voters in the recent election, it’s hard to fathom how they could make such a blunder. The best explanation is probably one given by Tallyrand, the great French diplomat of the late 18th and early 19th century, about the Bourbon dynasty and its mistakes before and after the French Revolution: “They learned nothing and forgot nothing,” he said.

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Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans were determined not to be outdone in the dumbbell derby. The GOP minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, made an ass of himself by calling for a vote to defeat a Democratic trial balloon to give President Obama exclusive power to raise the debt ceiling.

Imagine McConnell’s dismay when expected Democratic defections never materialized. Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid, his bête noir, had the 51 votes needed to squelch McConnell’s bid to embarrass the president.

McConnell was forced to filibuster his own bill. How mortifying! “I do believe we made history on the Senate floor today,” said an amused and incredulous Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat.

But the GOP's down week wasn't over yet. In a surprise move, Sen. Jim DeMint of surly South Carolina, leading tea party loudmouth in Congress, quit with scant notice to take the presidency of the hard-right Heritage Foundation, along with the prospect of a seven-figure salary. Who said politics doesn't pay?

He can have more impact outside the Senate, DeMint declared. Republicans can only hope that’s not true because DeMint was a major factor in winning GOP Senate nominations for tea party stalwarts who lost sure-thing Senate seats in Delaware, Nevada, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri in the past two elections.

In other words, DeMint’s far-right ardor cost the GOP control of the place.

Democrats are having a high-old hilarious time watching the Grand Old Plutocrats implode and you can’t really blame them. But they may be laughing too soon.

Obama needs a significant tax and spending deal to validate his second term and secure his legacy. And he needs it soon. Second-term presidencies are rarely effective beyond the first two years — until the midterm elections. After that, the Oval Office occupant is a lame duck, or worse yet, a deceased one.

And to get that deal, he needs a Republican partner who can deliver GOP votes. He needs House Speaker John Boehner, in short, and has to hope Boehner's got enough clout with his fractious caucus to pull it off.

The sticking point is Obama’s demand that the wealthiest top 2 percent pay a higher income tax rate. The money it would raise isn’t all that much or all that important. But it’s the fairness symbol Obama needs to sell the social welfare spending cuts he ultimately must ask Democratic constituencies to swallow.

Obama says it’s higher taxes for the wealthy or no deal; Boehner say it’s no tax increases or no deal. Somebody’s bluffing. The guess here is that it’s Boehner.

Already, members of his House GOP caucus are signaling it’s time to throw Grover Norquist and his hoary “no-tax-hike” pledge under the nearest bus. They finally seem to grasp that no party whose principal policy position is unquestioning support for the rich has much chance of winning a national election.

Boehner is a man riding a proverbial tiger in the tax issue; it could consume his speakership if he gets it wrong for the country and/or his party. But Obama’s got his own problems with left-wing irreconcilables in his own party.

It’s a perennial presidential problem. Bill Clinton put it best: “Being president is like running a cemetery. You’ve got a lot of people under you, but nobody’s listening.”

John Farmer is a Star-Ledger columnist. His column appears Sundays.

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