republicans defending republicans and the republican party is not "news"
i got fed up with seeing republicans "analysts" or "pundits" on the news a long time ago because they don't offer news.
there's hardly ever any actual content behind their shouting and interrupting. the biggest part of the republican position is what "issue" (often a manufactured smear) is at the top of their agenda for the day. but you don't need to interview a republican analyst or pundit for that, or even have them on your panel. the moderator can say what's on the agenda and be done with it.
there's also very rarely any actual facts. republicans decided decades ago that numbers make eyes droop, so they stopped doing that. so, again, less need for actual republicans to opine.
finally, their responses are so heavily coordinated, usually including the same focus group tested words, and usually said with a sneer, that again, it's rarely news. or at least, it's not news with a dozen pundits across a dozen media outlets.
about 15 years ago, i decided to do a test. my wife and i had dinner with a former boss of hers, a real texas republican, very conservative and very partisan. he had never met me, and probably never would again, so we decided i'd pretend to be a republican, figuring it would impress him.
i've never done anything of the sort, i'm not an actor or prankster by any measure. but i had made the claim a number of times that republicans were so simple-minded and predictable that they'd be easy to imitate.
anyway, the dinner went off without a hitch, we had fun and there was never a moment where we felt there was any suspicion that my "republican" views were an just act.
we still laugh about it, a decade and a half later.
somehow i can't see the typical republican faking being a democrat nearly as easily. they have such caricatured views of us, and then they'd have to come up with facts and logical arguments. that hard to do. so much easier to spew talking points that everyone's heard a thousand times.
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See? I'm a republican! 
