When it was question time last week, the GOP went straight to one of their patented talking points -- those awful earmarks. Why those poor goopers practically shivered over how Obama had approved all those earmarks... including the thousands they had added to the budget themselves.

Not surprisingly, their outrage is completely fake. Strike that. Make it faux. Republicans are so outraged about earmarks that they will blackmail the president and hold up the Senate to get more earmarks . They hate earmarks so much, that proving billions in earmarks to a French company is the most important task on hand.

And hang on a second, weren't we just told that geting jobs -- you know, good American jobs -- was so important that we couldn't even bother to waste one second on overturning Don't Ask, Don't Tell? As it turns out, there was something more important than creating American jobs: killing good American jobs at an American company in order to hand those jobs to a foreign corporate master.

Want to know what life is going to be like when the full impact of the Supreme Court’s recent crowning of corporations sinks in and legislators are completely beholden to international CEOs? Well, here you go. Richard Shelby is a man ahead of his time. This is the shape of things to come.

Are their people in need of justice, whose case can’t be heard because a court is without a judge? Too bad, because Shelby is waiting for le porc.

Are their agencies and commissions that can’t exercise oversight because their boards can’t be seated? No problem. Just give Shelby le porc.

Is national security threatened by an inability to seat key positions at the Department of Defense? That’s fine by Shelby. He puts le porc above the country.

If the Republicans want to prove that there is one shred of honesty in their ranting against earmarks, or their pretense to security concerns, or their shouting about the need for jobs, there’s a simple way to show that they mean it: rebuke Shelby and vote to end his hold.