Anyone surprised by the GOP sex club scandal, in which a RNC staff member dropped $2K of donor money at a bondage-themed strip club in LA, just hasn’t been paying attention. Republicans surpassed Democrats as the party most likely to be getting kinky a long time ago, and the fact that this fiasco came to light on Michael Steele’s watch only adds to the merriment. After Sarah Palin, he is their greatest gift to the Dems.

Voyeur, the club in question, has a show inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. That’s weird  enough right there, and makes you wonder if the DNC might be more comfortable in a Clockwork Orange themed joint, wherein patrons eyes are taped open and forced to watch Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

But our days of self-abasement are behind us, at least for the time being. Having finally passed a health-care reform bill (now that was torture) we can afford to be high-minded in the wake of this mini-scandal. (I mean, come on — two thousand dollars? You can hardly get a week of valet parking for that in West Hollywood.) “If limos, chartered aircraft and sex clubs are where they think their donors’ money should be spent, who are we to judge?” a DNC spokesman told the Times, before covering the phone and bursting into laughter.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are just getting into the self-flagellation. Having fucked the pooch (sorry, even that is still illegal in LA) on health care, and having ceded their party’s future to a bunch of wingnuts, the GOP has only self-inflicted misery to look forward to. And I always knew they liked playing dress-up; they’ve  been pretending to be the party of average Americans for so long that it’s finally caught up with them. Hand me that paddle.