We all know that most Republican members of Congress would rather be living in the 1950s, those golden, fantasy days, when Leave It To Beaver-ish blandness set the national tone and the whole reason for America’s existence was to kowtow to white males. Yes, we already knew that’s how they feel, but yesterday, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) put on full display the backward-looking, resentful cretinism that’s taken hold of their party.

The NRCC issued a press release criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for saying it would be difficult to get Democratic House members to vote for additional troops in Afghanistan. OK, fair enough. They don’t like her position. That’s par for the course in politics. But the NRCC took it two steps farther. First, they implied that since conservatives’ new favorite guy, Gen. McChrystal, says we need 40,000 more troops, civilian leaders should jump to attention and hand over whatever he wants pronto, forgetting that civilians set military policy in the U.S. Just as troubling, though, is the NRCC’s  statement that “taxpayers can only hope that Gen. McChrystal is able to put her (Pelosi) in her place.” Put her in her place. And what place would that be, NRCC? In what place should the first female Speaker of the House be put? Back in the kitchen, or scrubbing the floors, or, at the very least, being submissive to a jug-eared guy in a uniform? Sexist condescension fairly drips from the NRCC’s statement about Pelosi, and they need to be called on it in the halls of Congress.

Deliver Us From Weasels, a collection of 50 of John Grooms' best columns and articles, will be published in November by Main Street Rag Press. The book will cost $14.95, but can be purchased in advance through Oct. 26 for $10 including shipping at www.mainstreetrag.com/store/ComingSoon.php

• OK, which one of you clowns wants to put me in my place?