"Bronze Rat" joke

A woman walks into a curio shop in San Francisco.
Looking around at the exotica, she notices a very
life-like, life-size bronze statue of a rat. It has no
price tag, but it looks so striking she decides she
must have it. She takes it to the owner: "How much is
the bronze rat?""Twelve dollars for the rat, a hundred dollars for the
story," says the owner.The woman gives the shop owner twelve dollars. "I'll
just take the rat; you can keep the story."As she walks down the street carrying the bronze rat,
she notices that a few real rats have crawled out of
alleys and sewers, and begun following her down the
street. This is a bit disconcerting, so she begins
walking a little bit faster.Within a couple of blocks, the group of rats behind
her grows to over a hundred, and they begin squealing.
She starts to trot towards the Bay. She takes a
nervous look around and sees that the rats now number
in the thousands, maybe in the millions, and they are
all squealing and coming towards her faster and
faster.Terrified, she runs to the edge of the Bay and throws
the bronze rat as far out into the Bay as she can.
Amazingly, the millions of rats all jump into the Bay
after it, and are all drowned.The woman walks back to the curio shop. "Aha," says
the owner, "I'll bet you have come back for the
story.""Actually no," says the woman. "I came back to see if
you have a bronze Republican"