Jon Kyl, the Republican whip, tells us why he supports Senator Jim Bunning's one-man charge to stop the extension of unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of unemployed:
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working." Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,"
It's hard not hear echoes of Oliver Twist or the Scrooge in that statement, especially given the current simple lack of jobs. And the fairly low level of unemployment benefits. Empathy does not appear something that Kyl possesses.
That's what I mean by the underwear showing. As Joe Klein points out in the linked post, learning how some Republicans really think should give the Democrats a political advantage, assuming that most people have some ability to empathize. Klein calls that ability "common decency".