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This past week has been embarrassing for the GOP.  Mitch McConnell, heralded as a brilliant strategist by some, negotiated a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday with enough changes from the present tax holiday that small businesses discovered they would be unable to even implement the changes before the tax holiday expires in two months.

The House of Representatives made clear that it would oppose a two month extension because it kept uncertainty in the economy, businesses could not even take advantage of it anyway, and the tax holiday was paid for with permanent fee increases on people buying houses.

Then they caved after a bit of a spectacle.  Embarrassing.  

But if you think that is embarrassing, consider what's next on Congress's agenda.  Republicans and Democrats are joining together in bipartisan legislation to stop online piracy on the internet.  The legislation, authored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Texas) and co-sponsored by such diverse congress critters as Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D.-Fla.), would allow Attorney General Eric Holder to shut down any website in America he deemed to violate someone else's intellectual property.

Yes, Republicans want to give the man who claims cluelessness about Operation Fast and Furious the power to shut down the internet.  It is a rare moment of bipartisanship proving the rule that occasionally the stupid party and evil party get together to do something that is both stupid and evil.  They then call it bipartisan.

For now though, there is good news.  Congress is going home for Christmas.  Our liberties are safe for a few weeks.  

From all of us at Human Events and RedState.com, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

—Erick Erickson