The President-elect gives every indication of assuming the post-Civil Rights era Democratic Party’s accustomed role as the battered wife of American politics, assiduously sucking up to their abusive partner in the vain hope that someday the kindness will be repaid. Woefully premature FDR comparisons and messianic zeal among Obama’s faithful will quickly turn to disillusionment as the figure they elected starts to look a lot more like Harry Reid than FDR.

Touched by the let’s-all-get-along attitude from the incoming President, Congressional Republicans are reminding the backbenchers that “the duty of the opposition party is to oppose.” Translation: sharpen the talons. Get ready to block appointments and scuttle the ship. Run the government even further into the ground so that the GOP may arise in 2010 and 2012 to say “See? Look how much worse things are…”