SOUNDING OFF:

Probably the most curious phenomenon in our leadership world is the sorry state of the minority party, including its former administrative leadership.

In their own bird-like kingdom, it is not enough that the Republican reign left a “sea gull” landscape, but now the winged pillagers want a return engagement.

Sea gull, you say quizzically? Yes, sea gull: the creatures that leave everything covered with their offal and expect the new occupants to clean up the mess.

Figuratively, like sea gulls, conservative Republicans want to return, squawk and screech until an insufferable ego is fed and they can again besmirch the just-renewed landscape.

When they were heads of the flock, they preened, plotted dark plans, and strutted for audience attention. They got plenty of that when fed by lobbyist minions and praised by a fawning corporate media. And for years myopic constituent birds soared narcissistically in mirrored blue skies until the odor was detected.

Now in the year of the donkey, sea gulls want to stage a familiar return. Their plan has no coherence, their budget has no numbers, and their behavior has no principle except self-adulation.

As always, they want more tax cuts for the rich, and the people be damned.

This budget was their response to President Obama’s dare that detractors come up with a constructive plan of their own instead of their negative chatter.

Meanwhile, the dark force behind the Bush administration did his bit to foil Obama plans.

One can only surmise that former Vice President Dick Cheney hoped to foment more Mideast discord, having already tried to poison Israeli relationships with Obama by portraying Obama as pro-Palestinian. In fact, he told Israeli leadership, “He [Obama] will never make it in the major leagues.”

Cheney statements and actions time and again show that he would rather see our country fail rather than succeed under Democrat majority rule.

Cheney has in the past cockily admitted his own torture policy. In fact, he more recently suggested that the Bush administration torture policy is needed and that Obama’s closing down of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will make the country more susceptible to terrorist attack.

Cheney’s policy of torture, intrigue and assassination can keep us safe, he says. In fact, New Yorker columnist Seymour Hersh revealed that it was Cheney who controlled an “executive assassination ring” during Cheney’s cloaked activities as vice president.

In spite of global economic crisis, Obama’s 61% American approval rating and even higher approval throughout the world, right-wing forces obviously want him to fail and would like to aid him in that effort.

In spite of numerous allegations of criminal charges, Bush administration forces are still around to denigrate Obama. In spite of the abject failure of neo-conservative policy, Republicans still obstruct progress that a majority of Americans want, and they still advocate policy that has brought us near economic collapse.

And the Bush administration’s conscious effort to divide us continues to leave plenty of bitter, resentful and, thus polarized, people for Rush Limbaugh to whip into a frenzy of anger and derision.

Yes, we still have the axis forces of fear and loathing — Republican legislators who obstruct and offer ludicrous alternative budgets; un-indicted Bush-Co refugees: Karl Rove, still critical and obstructive toward Obama, and Cheney who tried to sour the Israeli-American relationship for Obama; and a right-wing blowhard with an audience of millions who openly calls for Obama’s failure. What would the Bush administration have done to such detractors at the height of its power?

JIM HOOVER lives in Huntington Beach.