Newt Gingrich had much the same attitude in today's Washington Post. I'll not link to it because it's not worth your time. I think we should encourage the Repubs to be increasingly conservative, far-right wack-jobs. Maybe we'll get some more moderate Repubs to defect.

'Learning' and 'Wrong' are not words as defined by the librul dictionaries used by wingnuts to describe wingnuts.

Their ability to adapt can be summed up with:

More Cowbell.

Snowe is not going to leave the Republican party and neither will Collins. The state electorate strongly supports them and the state Republican party has strong conservatives but also quite a lot of moderates. After all, the vote from the state legislative Judiciary Committee yesterday in support of equal marriage was bipartisan.

Furthermore, since the overall electorate is not that party-oriented, people will not vote on the basis of giving Democrats more support in the Senate or on the basis of helping Obama achieve his agenda. Tom Allen tried to make that argument in the fall and he lost to Collins rather decisively.

So don't look for either of these Maine Senators to switch. You can look for them to continue to be relatively independent (although not as much as I would like) and to continue to speak out about the state of the party.

This is a surprisingly common sentiment in conservative circles. They're absolutely convinced that the only reason Republican numbers have fallen off in recent years is that the GOP hasn't been nearly conservative enough.

"Surprisingly"? Why? It's all they've ever known: veer to the right, mock the Democrat as a homosexual appeaser, WIN!

They're the underpants gnomes of politics.

The purebreds haven't realized that when you circle the wagons, no movement forward is possible! -Kevo

This is a surprisingly common sentiment in conservative circles.

Why?

The nutbags are seeing a day when they have total control of a national party. Granted, a shrinking party, but a national party nonetheless. After all, they're about 96% of the way there already. Just a little more purging to go.

I like the "circle the wagons" metaphor. As the folks on the outside become cast-offs, the circle gets tighter and tighter.

Self inflicted wedgie.

Drifting off to sleep last night, I stopped briefly at Hannity's show while surfing...it's sometimes helpful to know what the inmates are murmuring about...and caught his remark about how the "Republican party has shifted pretty far left since the days of Reagan." And I have to thank him, too...as we all know, a good belly laugh is really a pleasant and enjoyable thing!

Evidently, our trend of political news-as-comedy continues.

I've long thought that the Republican Party, in its current John Birch incarnation, is finished. Its screams of tax cuts and socialism just don't work any more. But with the Democratic Party having moved so far to the center, and the American people agreeing with so much of the Democrats' agenda, the GOP has little room in which to maneuver. It seems to me that the space for political coalescence is now on the left, with a centrish group represented by moderate Republicans from blue states and DLC types, and a more liberal wing.

Given the sickeness embodies by the current batch of GOP dead-enders, that kind of split -- with pressure being applied from the left, not the right, on cautious centrists like Bayh and Specter -- would be healthy for the nation. Not to mention effective, thus nailing the coffin shut on the GOP of Rove, Cheney and Bush once and for all.

It is only surprising if you make the unwarranted assumption that you're discussing rational people. These people are true believers, anything and everything reinforces their preconceptions: that's how true believerhood works.

If Snow and Collins stick around with the pubs, they are simply hypocrites.

Between Hannity, Limbaugh, and idiots like Jim DeMint this is starting to reach a level of sublime comedy. These "conservatives" seem to be hell bent on publicly performing hari kari through a variation of the old "keep doing the same thing expecting different results."

Or possibly it's like a game of Russian roulette where you add another bullet each time the gun goes around. Yet they expect not just to survive, but to thrive...?

Come to think of it, George Custer must've been one of these Rushpublican ideologues. After all, I'm pretty sure that his last words were, "Keep firing, men---we've got those un-American Sioux socialists surrounded!"

It might take another election cycle or two, but this is going to make the Little Big Horn look like a bunch of pre-schoolers arguing over the only shovel-and-pail set in the sandbox....

Not that I want to give actual advice to the Republican Party, but the problem is that they're right for the wrong reasons.

Save for the tax cuts, the GOP ISN'T conservative- they're insane. Massively expanding the federal government IS NOT conservative. Ordering the most sweeping intrusion in to the private lives of American citizens IS NOT conservative. Accusing your political enemies of treason for suggesting the very same policies Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon did IS NOT conservative.

This has nothing to do with "conservative" values; it has to do with the insane and, for that matter, the inane. People are dying of disease and losing their jobs and the GOP wants to sponsor "tea party" rallies to protest having their taxes cut.

There is ample room in American government for disagreements on policy, providing you can present a counter point. The GOP is in a death spiral because they have none. They're just crazy.

This is a throwback to the morning following the '64 election. Even though, LBJ creamed Goldwater, the South voted Republican for the first time. This established their new base. They, immediately, set out to purge any moderate or liberal. This became apparent in '66 when they began their purge of any Republican who had voted for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Senator Thomas Kuechel, who was due to move up in seniority in the Senate was ousted in the '66 Cal Repub primary by a combination of Orange Co. Birchers and Southern Democrats in the San Joaquin Valley who switched to become RepuGs. So, once again, the Committee of Public Safety is beginning a blood purge for only the purest of the pure and falling upon their Southern base.

I don't understand it! Everyone I know voted for Dukakis.

"I think if anything, the Republican Party is moved to the left in recent years."

Clearly Hannity doesn't think anything at all.

I'm interested in the curious timing of this op-ed piece. Coordinated with Specter? I frankly don't think Snowe would go out on a limb by herself like that.

Snowe is not going to leave the Republican party and neither will Collins. The state electorate strongly supports them and the state Republican party has strong conservatives but also quite a lot of moderates. After all, the vote from the state legislative Judiciary Committee yesterday in support of equal marriage was bipartisan.

Well, that would be fine if they were in the state legislature, but they have to work with the Repubs in D.C., and they might finally get sick of being treated like outcasts in their own party even if they don't ever have to worry about re-election. Collins was just re-elected in 2008 anyway, so that's not a problem at all for her.
But the thing that would really bother me would be the constant trashing by my supposed allies.

This is a throwback to the morning following the '64 election. Even though, LBJ creamed Goldwater, the South voted Republican for the first time. This established their new base. They, immediately, set out to purge any moderate or liberal. This became apparent in '66 when they began their purge of any Republican who had voted for the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.

Worth pointing this out too. No, the GOP is not inherently racist, nor are Republicans inherently racist. But the rise of the Reagan Republican right was based on racism, and a generation later the GOP doesn't have as powerful a racist base anymore. We just elected a black man president, for godssakes.

Latinos are now the largest minority in the U.S., and they hate the GOP because of its immigration stance. Working-class Americans are far more worried about keeping their jobs that stopping imaginary Muslim hordes encroaching the shores of America. Almost half the country now supports gay marriage.

The GOP is running out of demagogues. That means they have to run on ACTUAL policy proposals, and they have none, save "tax cuts."

its about the entertainment..its the wwf...politics has nothing to do with it...

Come to think of it, George Custer must've been one of these Rushpublican ideologues. After all, I'm pretty sure that his last words were, "Keep firing, men---we've got those un-American Sioux socialists surrounded!"

Would that make them Siouxcialists?

Evidently, our trend of political news-as-comedy continues.

I especially liked Hannity's "Obama is the antithesis of Reagan on economic issues" comment.

Let's see..... Reagan increased the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion, Under his tenure the US went from being the world's largest creditor to the world's largest debter.

I truly hope Obama is the "antithesis" of Reagan, Mr. Sean Hannity.

I've been watching the GOP with fascination for some time now. As a psychologist, I find their lemming-like behavior a true curiosity. They seem to take great solace in unanimity, no matter how much their agreed-upon views fly in the face of reality.

Rather than attempting to appeal to the electorate as a means of winning elections, they rely on intermittently successful attempts to steal elections while basking in the warmth of glorious acceptance from the most vocal (and loony) members of their base.

Being a valued member of the party and gaining the beneficence of party leaders like Limbaugh and Hannity even trumps getting re-elected, which would be in any politician's self-interest.

"Fox News' Sean Hannity lamented, "I think if anything, the Republican Party is moved to the left in recent years."

Maybe, if you are a bona fide member of Grover Norquist's bathtub community.

The financial oligarchs who run the country (and who we are currently bailing out) have abandoned the GOP now that the Obama/Summers administration has proven far more effective in supporting their agenda.

If they were smart, the GOP would turn into a true populist party that represents lower-middle class interests now that they don't have to appease the hyper-rich anymore. But I don't think they have the brains or imagination to make a move like that.

Don't relax. The underpinnings of the American political system have not changed.

Big money still owns the media and the back-rooms of congress. The 30% or so of 'independents' shifted slightly to the progressive side by the years of Bush incompetence can still easily be stampeded one direction or the other... another 9-11 would do the trick.

The thugs just need another Reagan. Simple minded, folksy and persuasive. None are on the current horizon... Palin is no Reagan nor are Limbaugh or Gingrich.

But things could change in a hurry. So don't relax. These people never sleep.

I'm starting to think a good deal of the Republicans' political death wish comes from the fact that they've created their own parallel media. The Wurlitzer is so well built out that your average wingnut has the option of listening to it and nothing else, which many do. Once they reach that point, they are so insulated from reality that even consecutive electoral drubbings can't break through the ideological walls.

If this is right, the Republicans won't have any capacity to heal themselves so long as their noise machine keeps playing. They managed to cling to power for a long time by taking advantage of the unity of purpose that flowed from their authoritarian, top-down organization. But eventually it all fell apart, and their troops' ability to adapt to changing conditions had already atrophied.

I'm cautiously hopeful that the party may never come back.

For a long time I thought the Dems needed to create their own counterpoint to Fox News - an apologetically partisan news source, kind of like Olbermann but on 24/7. Now I'm thinking it's perhaps just as well they didn't, seeing how it's worked out for the GOP.

"...I think ..."

Sorry, Mr. Hannity, but your ability to do anything like that is "a fact not in evidence" as they say.

I remember, 22 years ago, going to an event down in Orangutang County, and there were a bunch of Republicans having a meeting at the same hotel. As I was walking down the stairs behind two of them, I heard them in earnest conversation as to who was "the stronger Christian" in the meeting they'd just come from and congratulating some woman who had taken down an opponent because "he didn't know the rules." These bozos are only more apparently crazy now than they sounded then.

But I sure do hope they keep it up, since it's been such a successful strategy for them.

The thugs just need another Reagan.

I don't think this is so. Reagan took advantage of a unique political moment in which the party's white southern base has begun to switch from Democrats to Republicans, but hadn't yet ruined the GOP brand. Further, Reagan was willing to do certain things, like raise taxes, that would be anathema to the current doctrinaire wingnut base and power structure. Last of all, the country's demographics then were very different; much more white, with plenty of people who remembered the 1960's and were repulsed by them.

Back in the now, everything's in the hands of the Dems, who will have to make a real mess of everything before the GOP will have any chance to return to power. The Republicans are in a completely reactive position, and can't do anything significant to improve their own chances. All they can do is wait for an opening which may not come.

I think Huckabee is as talented as Reagan was, but the political moment has passed, so he won't ever rise to actual power. If Reagan were around today, even he would never make it to the White House under current conditions.

g. powell wrote: "The financial oligarchs who run the country (and who we are currently bailing out) have abandoned the GOP now that the Obama/Summers administration has proven far more effective in supporting their agenda."

I think that's pretty much on target.

The Democratic Party is in the process of cutting a deal with America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc. -- a deal that will be, broadly speaking, not dissimilar to the deal that Clinton cut with the corporate oligarchy, for a "kinder and gentler", "compassionate conservative" corporatist governance.

The rich will stay rich, they will hold on to most of their ill-gotten gains from Bush-Cheney's corrupt, massive transfer of wealth and power into their hands, and they will continue to concentrate wealth and power into their hands to some degree. That's the American Way, after all.

But they will agree to give the middle class and working class some scraps from the table rather than a kick in the teeth. And they will accept some degree of the rule of law in return for the competent, technocratic governance that Obama brings as a necessary remedy to Bush-Cheney's incompetence, which has put even the very rich at risk.

g. powell wrote: "If they were smart, the GOP would turn into a true populist party that represents lower-middle class interests now that they don't have to appease the hyper-rich anymore."

Well, they are not all that smart. And unfortunately for the GOP, it isn't a matter of "appeasing" the hyper-rich. The whole and entire purpose of the present-day Republican Party is to be a tool of the ultra-rich corporate ruling class. And its only interest in the middle class or the working class (who are increasingly indistinguishable) is to bamboozle them with BS (god, guns, gays, whatever works) into voting for politicians who will work against their interests to enrich and empower the rich at the expense of working people. That's really the essence of what it means to be a Republican politician today.

"The American people don't want a lukewarm agenda," DeMint said. "They don't want a liberal light agenda." heh - and Bachmann, both stupid *and* crazy per downblog. Well, since the Right-intensives are in such a rebellious mood (secede from the Union, teabagging,buying up all the ammunition so cops can't even get it to defend us from them I suppose, paranoid fantasies about the swine flu they can't even get factually correct,) how about using those infrared "fever scanners" to spot the "right-wing extremists" we've been warned about, which occasioned such additional outrage among actual RWEs on the radio, TV, and in Congress? The RWE's are hot and sweaty, angry and "in a rebellious mood" because taxes were increased on the rich, someone is trying to prevent a depression, maybe extend back-ground checks to buyers of guns from "occasional dealers" at gun shows, because some people think our government should actually obey international treaties we signed, etc... Their clench-mouthed and hard-staring, bulgy-eyed ruddy faces should glow like firefly butts in IR images.

BTW, isn't it an unsettling year when "stimulus package", "teabagging", and "cornhole"* are the hip catch phrases? (*a newly popular game of merely throwing beanbags into a hole, at least getting Sudoku addicts on their feet.)

Ssssshhhhh. Let's not trouble the Repugs with reality.

That's right GOP, you're not far-right nutty enough. That's the ticket. You've moved too far to the left, uh huh, yes, yes. Excellent.

So don't look for either of these Maine Senators to switch. You can look for them to continue to be relatively independent (although not as much as I would like) and to continue to speak out about the state of the party.

I think it's going to depend on how Snowe and Collins are treated by their fellow Republicans in Congress, not just state politics. Jim Jeffords became an independent because the Bushies couldn't resist poking him with petty insults for not toeing the line, and there's some talk that Specter ultimately left for the same reason.

Honestly, I think Snowe is warning the Republicans against behaving so childishly. The question now is if they're going to act in their own self-interest or work even harder to drive Snowe and Collins away.

I simply don't see what Snowe has to gain by staying in the Republican Party. There was something in it for her when the Republicans controlled the Senate, there was even something in it for her when the Republicans controlled only the White House. Now her party controls nothing and for the most part they don't seem to want her. Perhaps they'll start wooing her, but I doubt it.

Cognitive dissonance.

Given the voting records of folks like Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh and some other Senate Democrats, Snowe and Collins will continue to be able to get things they want from the administration. Their votes are still needed.

There is also no reason to think that Snowe is going to be browbeaten by her fellow Republicans. She didn't back down to Bush/Cheney/Rove on the Bush tax cuts. Collins is more conservative and less courageous than Snowe, so that may be a different story.

You really have to appreciate Maine politics to know how much all of this is a net positive for Snowe and Collins. They worship at the alter of independence. They remember and adore Margaret Chase Smith (who challenged McCarthyism) and Bill Cohen (who voted for Nixon's impeachment and signed onto the majority Iran-contra report)and view these two as being in the same mold. I would never vote for either, but I can't see either being voted out unless they make a major right turn or become too old to effectively carry out their jobs.

secularanimsit,

The GOP pretty much bit the hand of our financial overlords when they mostly opposed the Bush/Paulson TARP plan last fall. The bailout plan passed only because of Dem support.

I'm not sure what it means to be a Republican right now (nor do they), but they certainly are paying the price for not supporting the hyper-rich agenda.

I was actually just thinking of the Black Knight from "The Holy Grail."

"We have less than 40 senators and are inconsequential in the House. It's merely a flesh wound."

Sen. Spector hasn't really left the GOP. He's just trying to get re-elected. You can rely on him to vote the GOP agenda while he keeps telling people he's doing something else.

EFCA is a prime example, but by no means the only one. He swore to SEIU and other unions that he would support the bill, then voted against it. After the union had run ads supporting him.

This is his standard MO, and it ain't gonna change. He is not a moderate, he just plays on on cable. He is not the nearly mythical 60th vote that gives us a filibuster proof majority--he'll only give that vote when there's nothing at stake from the GOP perspective.

Don't let him keep fooling you.

"This is a surprisingly common sentiment in conservative circles. They're absolutely convinced that the only reason Republican numbers have fallen off in recent years is that the GOP hasn't been nearly conservative enough."

I predicted immediately after the November elections that the American RightWing would claim the problem was that the Republican party was not RightWing enough.

They think the problem was not that they were hitting themselves in the head with a hammer, but that they were not hitting themselves in the head with a hammer HARD ENOUGH.

Pass the popcorn.

I simply don't see what Snowe has to gain by staying in the Republican Party.

She -- and Collins -- get attention, interest, publicity and a (deserved or not) reputation for independence, courage and sensible moderation, which not a few disaffected Republican voters are looking for. She and Collins also get to position themselves against McCain and a couple of others for the title of Last Sane Republican. The GOP will be reborn, if it is reborn, as a moderate, populist, pro-business and socially laissez faire party. Unfortunately for its heir wannabes, that ain't happening any election cycle soon.

If Snowe or Collins jump, they become just a couple of blue dog Democrats. They may well think it's worth the derision and constant abuse from their partymates to have the respect of more normal Americans.

Or what Amy said more succinctly.

"Fox News' Sean Hannity lamented, "I think if anything, the Republican Party is moved to the left in recent years."

For once I agree with Sean. A large and growing segment of the Republican party *has* moved to the left in recent years.

They've become Democrats.

Wake up,Sean. Your evil empire is adrift and out of fuel, and even Darth Vader can't save you now.

It wasn't that long ago that people were saying the Republicans had cemented themselves a permanent majority and the Democratic Party (who would never win the South or the plains states) was near death. And the Democratic Party moved left, at the very least in rhetoric, and gained control.

Not that I think the Republicans need to move right to win. As August said, "right" has become synonymous with "crazy". Their core constituencies are too much at odds, too out of step with the country, and too demanding. They can't be the party of small government, corporate welfare, and intrusive social policy all at the same time and appeal to anyone with half a brain. And they've taken on too many loud, blustering, idiotic politicians and pundits.

But I do think they'll be back. The mood will change, people will again be concerned about taxes and federal debt, people will get frustrated with government agencies and policies (as they always do), and slowly they'll look for easy answers to hard problems. I don't know what the Republican Party will look like then -- whether they'll have moved towards populism or libertarianism or moderate fiscal responsibility, but I'm sure they'll be there. (And, as always, the crazy won't be far behind.)

The current Republican party is not really a viable political party diligently working to win national elections and govern in accordance with a coherent political philosophy. It is instead, in the tradition of old time river boat snake oil salesmen and the modern televangelists, peddling faded dreams and false hope to the rubes. They are happy as long as the rubes are throwing money their way. I am surprised they don't feature minstrel singers as part of their little show. That the Republican party is taken seriously at all is amazing.

Shortstop, a party can't be "populist, pro-busines" at the same time - not honestly. The ReRushlickins have been pretending to be already.

This Republican strategy assumes that there was a block of voters that voted Democratic because Republicans weren't right-wing enough, and that will return to voting Republican if the party moves further right? It just might work.

"The thugs just need another Reagan. Simple minded, folksy and persuasive. None are on the current horizon... Palin is no Reagan nor are Limbaugh or Gingrich."

Look out for Huckabee. He can fake this stuff in his sleep.

"These people never sleep."

I'm pretty sure they sleep in a coffin from sun-up to sun-down.

These people are really Taliban. There's no other way to put it. They are so occupied, single-mindedly obsessed, with this ideology as if it were a national flag, and they can see no place for themselves in the world in which we actually live. The "liberty" they speak of isn't really the sort of liberty we recognize... it's rather a particular Southern flavor of authoritarianism. It's really interesting to have a major political party run by such extremist ideologues... it doesn't happen often in industrialized societies nowadays.

Of course, it did in the past, and I don't think the comparison is that far off. Thank God these guys are out of power, because I really don't think they would show any self-restraint whatsoever if they hold the reins.

JimBOB made an interesting point at 10:16. After all, even the most highly rated cable news shows don't get THAT big an audience, but what they get is politically active.

I think part of the problem with teh ReThugs is that "conservative" is a word with many meanings, and that some of those conflict in the public policy arena.

Small government conflicts with banning books and caring, at all, what people do in their bedrooms.

Religious puritanism conflicts with pro-business (and thus pro-customer) market "conservatism."

We here all seem to see the root of their problem in the Southern Strategy, which bought them racists and their cousins relgious extremists, but the trailer trash they bought with the Southern Strategy breeds faster than those Northern elites, and after a generation, they've final had to pay for their Faustian bargain.

so sad.

It's very confusing. The Republicans have moved far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far to the left as big government borrow-and-spenders. Before the astro-mega-spender Obama, they were more fiscally liberal and irresponsible than the Democrats.

Because of political correctness, we cannot explicitly say that the Republican party has become a religious party of the anti-abortion Catholics and Evangelicals because we celebrate diversity and JFK proved that we can elect a Catholic, thus primary loyalty to the Pope is no longer an issue in America. So we must refer to the religious wing of the Rove coalition euphemistically as the "right," or "conservative base." Heady stuff.

"This is a surprisingly common sentiment in conservative circles. They're absolutely convinced that the only reason Republican numbers have fallen off in recent years is that the GOP hasn't been nearly conservative enough."
The present-day Republican Party is now being run by true believers. These people have spent years building up their local groups/parties to reflect their dearly-held beliefs and their dearly-held beliefs only. One by one, they have added to their numbers and now they are in control.
They are the purest of the pure; right-wing Jacobins, if you will. And, as their beliefs are the only true ones, they will not compromise, they will not pander, and they most definitely will not allow their party to be polluted by the presence of non-true believers.
As long as there is no national tragedy they can exploit and they are unable to find their "Robespierre" we can safely watch them relegate themselves to first, a regional party and then oblivion.
But until then, don't turn your back on them.