How do they handle the awful, awful heartburn?

Last week was the annual Republican fundraising dinner! Huzzah! Let's listen in, shall we?

First up, the interview between Sean Hannity and invited/disinvited, keynote speaker/not keynote speaker, Sarah Palin!

"Is this even more than you thought was going to be in terms of where the president would take the economy?" Hannity asked.

"A lot of this is wrapped in good rhetoric," she said, "but we're not seeing those actions, and this many months into the new administration, quite disappointed, quite frustrated with not seeing those actions to rein in spending, slow down the growth of government. Instead, China's the complete opposite. It's expanding at such a large degree that if Americans are paying attention, unfortunately, our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize, certainly that is so far from what the founders of our countries had in mind for us."

Of course, this begs the question of whether she is unable to articulate her thoughts or she has no thoughts to articulate. What the heck is she trying to say here?

She seems to think that the President ran on a "shrink government" platform which certainly isn't the case. And she seems to think that the growth of government is the root of our economic problems which isn't even close to being true. We're in trouble because of 20 years of deregulation and the financial strain of throwing billions of dollars a week into Iraq and Afghanistan.

As far as our country evolving into something the founders wouldn't recognize, they certainly wouldn't understand how such a ditz became the governor of an entire state, even if it is Alaska.

Newt Gingrich, obviously jealous of Palin's spotlight decide he'd better get into the act.

He attacked Obama for a line from Obama's speech in Berlin in July 2008, when Obama told the audience he spoke to them as "a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world."

"Let me be clear. I am not a citizen of the world!" Gingrich said. "I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous."

Wow, xenophobic and stupid in three short sentences! Somehow considering ourselves citizens of this tiny planet filled with worldwide problems that need cooperation to be solved is "stunningly dangerous". If more of these knuckleheads considered themselves citizens of the world perhaps we'd be in much better stead with the rest of the world.

And finally, we need a gratuitous film reference incorrectly applied to really end this segment. Ari?

"Newt is a wonderful, fabulous dinner speaker, full of ideas and entertainment, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said on ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday. "But Newt is not going to be the next nominee of the Republican Party.... The Republican future cannot be back to the future. It needs to be a new future."

Nice.