How to Write Republican Talking Points

In this March 1, 2012 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill.

I wrote last month about the unique definition of compromise that some on the right employ, specifically Rep. Tom Price's characterization of compromise as being when you get more of what you want. Wednesday, The Maddow Blog's Steve Benen flagged another classic, Indiana Republican Senate nominee Richard Mourdock's repeated redefinition of the word "bipartisanship" as consisting of "Democrats coming to the Republican point of view."

What we see here is an inventive if intellectually nonsensical way for Republicans to bridge the divide between what concepts popular with independent voters (compromise and bipartisanship) and principles important to conservative voters (steadfastly standing by principles and eschewing weak-kneed notions like compromising or deal-making).

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Republican Party.]

As a public service to our friends on the right, here are a few other suggested talking points they might want to employ in the same vein:

• Health plans should certainly cover contraception, just not birth control.
• Certainly I support increasing taxes on the rich to make them pay their fair share, provided that their taxes go down.
• I absolutely favor equal pay for women, just so long as men are allowed to make more doing the same work.
• Federal infrastructure spending must be increased, just not by the government.
• I want to protect and preserve the Medicare's guarantee of health coverage for seniors by making it a program of the same name that doesn't guarantee health coverage for seniors.

[See a collection of political cartoons on healthcare.]

Actually they're already using that last one.

Propose your nonsensical GOP talking points in the comments section below.

• See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.
• Follow Robert Schlesinger on Twitter at @rschles
• Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insiders to politics and policy

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