Unusual Literary Application of Cormorant

As we all know, a cormorant is an ungainly, some would say ugly, fish-eating bird. Thus, Boston Globe colomnist Ellen Goodman's use of the word in an oped piece entitled "The Republican Theocracy" is quite unusual and imaginative. To quote from the first paragraph:

As a certified flap watcher, I will look back on the Rick Santorum controversy as the cormorant of its species. It took an enormous amount of energy to achieve a modest liftoff, and then it flopped unceremoniously back into the political ocean. The flapping began after the Pennsylvania senator offered his comments on the Texas sodomy case . . .'