Lame Duck or Fresh Fowl for GOP Table?

Dispossession must be good for the soul. In final Senate days, Joe Lieberman adioses the Three Amigos on the McCain-Graham call for a special committee to investigate Benghazi attacks, as do other GOP colleagues.

Meanwhile, McCain himself jumps for another spotlight by urging that the President send Bill Clinton to oversee cease fire talks between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.

What’s really going on here? Between closing the books on Obama I and starting the overture for II, the Republican orchestra is tuning up, with future soloists piping new sounds and past performers trying to horn in for one last chorus.

As McCain and his ilk recede, the 2016 hopefuls try out their arias. Paul Ryan hopes to survive Romney discord by vocalizing in the debt ceiling talks. “He helps us toward creating a product,” says Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who didn’t help the ticket carry his home state, “and he helps sell the product.”

Chris Christie, who embraced Obama for the Sandy cleanup, tries out his new act on Saturday Night Live,  and Bobby Jindal leads the chorus for a new likable GOP.  In an interview, Marco Rubio waffles about the age of the earth.

While Barack Obama is out of the country being President, the Sunday morning talkers are still trying to get over their Romney flop.

“You have a political problem,” says George Will, “when the voters don’t like you, but you’ve got a real problem when the voters think you don’t like them.”

Republicans won’t have a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving this year, but they’re trying.

Update: In a holiday eve news dump, McCain admits he was wrong about Susan Rice and Benghazi.  Quietly eating crow the night before Thanksgiving is not likely to spoil his appetite for red meat the day after tomorrow.