But the poster was removed after just a few days because it terrified me, particularly since it sorta glowed in the dark as well. Later in life I learned that Disney's Alice had terrified lots of kids and was a terrific disappointment for Disney himself as well for that reason.

So anyway, last night I read this article just before I went to bed, and as I drifted off, that old poster invaded my dreams, albeit that the characters had become Trump and Bannon and Ryan and Mitch, etc., and the face of the Cheshire cat had morphed into the giant leering visage of - Newt Gingrich.

After thinking about it all day today, I've finally realized why I would conjure such an awful image: it was because Newt started all of this.

"The Congress is a kind of club. I intend to go up there and kick the system over, not try to change it." - Newt Gingrich, during his first run for office, 1974.

Reading up about the details of Gingrich's life today gave me another flash of Deja Vu in reverse: his past constantly reminds me of the present. Read this article from the Washington Post by Mary McCrory, written in 1989, just before he ascended to the speakership, to see exactly what I mean.

After that, Newt pops up like Forrest Gump at every cultural inflection point in the recent history of the Republican Party, from his association with Frank Luntz that began in 1990 (Luntz told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2007 that "To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity") to his presence at the Republican dinner held on inauguration day in 2009 wherein a group of party leaders that included Luntz, Gingrich, Ryan, and McConnell decided that the best way to deal with the tremendously popular new President Obama was to simply oppose every single thing he did - including GOP initiatives that Obama endorsed - to prevent him from racking up any 'wins' during his first term. By many accounts, this "Party of No" initiative originated with Gingrich.

It may come as a surprise to some, then, that Gingrich was a bit late getting onto the Trump bus - although he was in Trump's camp by March 2016, he didn't endorse him 'officially' until May (on Hannity's show), when Trump's nomination was all but inevitable. Still, once that endorsement was made, he instantly rose to the top of Trump's VP contenders list.

Despite all of that history, Gingrich is just three years older than Trump.

But Gingrich doesn't need to be President, nor hold any official role in GOP politics, because the Republican Party, and all sides of the current 'rift', from the McConnell obstructionists to the Bannon nihilists are essentially playing from his playbook, in some fashion.

And that gigantic, terrifying smile that I imagined must surely be one of satisfaction at the chaotic Wonderland that he has wrought.

Mitch...stay with me buddy ...you're going to make it...

The SLOTH Fund

Too late, too slowwww