It was not that long ago that Republicans were the reasonable ones, providing a necessary small-government, pro-business counterweight to well-meaning yet often unrealistic policies put forward by Democrats. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case since this new faction of the GOP, the so-called “Tea Party,” emerged from what must be a very dark place of the American psyche.

And now the inimical manifestation of that dark place threatens to destroy the American economy — an event that you must know will in turn do the very same to the entire world economy — simply because it refuses to give in on even a few of its more unreasonable demands vis a vis the deficit and the debt ceiling, or compromise with the Democrats, who are now the reasonable ones.

Unbelievable!

Even more unbelievable is me, writing to you to implore you, and any other reasonable Republicans who may be serving in the House of Representatives, to please reconsider the plan put forward by (of all people) Senate majority leader Harry Reid. This was the measure that will provide much-needed certainty in the markets by raising the debt ceiling until 2013, while cutting $2.7 trillion from the budget without increasing taxes.

Yes, I know that part of those savings come from the winding down of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Republicans included those very same savings in their budget cutting proposals, too. Thus I do not buy into the nonsense claims that Mr. Reid’s plan contains  ”accounting tricks,” as if such machinations are the exclusive purview of Democrats.

To paraphrase President Obama, I voted for a divided government, not a dysfunctional one. The two parties, one liberal and the other conservative, are supposed to pull each other toward a reasonable center and implement solutions that keep government small so that it is efficient, but not so small that it becomes ineffective.

So, please be reasonable. Put the welfare of the nation ahead of partisanship and ideology —  the Democrats have bent over backwards to do so — and please try to persuade other Republicans to do the same.

It was invented by Sarah Palin, the Bard of Wasilla, who joins William Shakespeare, Stephen Colbert, and Twitter in adding to our modern lexicon.

Based upon Ms. Palin’s single usage of the term (in a Twitter tweet, which was later deleted — why?), “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” it seems to be a sort-of amalgamation of the words repudiate and refute — or Ms. Palin meant to use either refute or repudiate and got them confused, or made a typo (though the F key is nowhere near the P key on a standard QWERTY keyboard), or meant both but was limited to 140 characters.

Only the Bard of Wasilla knows for sure…

So, let’s work this — ’cause I think it’s fun.

re·pu·di·ate [ri-pyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. refuse to accept or be associated with.  2. deny the truth or validity of 3. chiefly Law refuse to fulfill or discharge (an agreement, obligation, or debt)

re·fute [ri-fyoot] verb [ trans. ] 1. prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove  2. prove that (someone) is wrong. 3. deny or contradict (a statement or accusation).

re·fu·di·ate [ri-fyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. disprove and disassociate from a statement.  2. prove someone or something wrong via denial of irrefutable facts. 3. to delete an embarrassing tweet before someone grabs a screenie of it and makes it go viral on the Internet.

Photo: Sarah Palin speaking at a rally in Elon, NC during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, by Therealbs2002