That's the setup for the punchline to the famous joke, The Aristocrats! Now, it may be that with the Iraq Study Group, the long-running and incredibly vile "family act" that the Bush malAdministration has been putting on for the American people is about to reach some kinda awful climax and punchline--"The Aristocrats!"--as well. We can only hope.

But seriously folks, the idea of interpreting the Bush criminal regime as an embryonic, not-yet-aborted aristocracy is important, as Digby points out:

[Phil Agre writes that [T]he most central feature of conservatism is deference: a psychologically internalized attitude on the part of the common people that the aristocracy are better people than they are. ... [I]t is crucial to conservatism that the people must literally love the order that dominates them. .. People who believe that the aristocracy rightfully dominates society because of its intrinsic superiority are conservatives; democrats, by contrast, believe that they are of equal social worth. Conservatism is the antithesis of democracy. This has been true for thousands of years."

Funny how with Republicans, "innate superiority" translates to "stole as much as they could." Says Mr. Natural: