In Graham's case I suspect the GOP will resemble a 'party of angry white gays'.

I think a number of Republicans are getting scared. I thought after the election that there would be a civil war in the Republican Party, and I still think there will be. Alot of these people are seeing past the overblown media attention that the tea baggers are getting and realize there's a disaster brewing. The Republican Party is quickly becoming a cult party. If its not reversed now there's no saving the situation. In the end we might see the fringe element split off and form a third party. If that happens every effort will need to me made to marginalize them so they can't gain foothold even if the reddest of districts. But I think the Republican Party will fracture.

The GOP is the party of "angry white guys" because they are the ones who realize how much they have to lose. Soon, all Americans will realize how much they have to lose in BHO's America, and the GOP will become a rainbow coalition of anger.

Al's got a point - and a hat to cover it.

But the GOP may actually be saved if a fringe element does indeed split off. It would be the wake up call they need to change course. It appears that anything short of that won't work.

Poor Al. Doesn't realize the things he fears losing, he never really had anyway.

Graham made his mark by trying President Clinton in the Senate during the impeachment hearings. It is the initial extreme action of said impeachment that has set the tone we have been experiencing for the past 11 years.

Sen. Graham is merely fending off the political monsters he himself helped create! Yes, it is a bit late to get his dander up regarding extremism in the Republican party. After all, he and his rabid ilk worked to impeach a president without just cause and now such illegitimate action has propagated a political coarseness antithetical to small d democracy.

No, Sen. Graham, you can't put the genie back into the bottle! -Kevo

At the rate the GOP is alienating voters, they will be the fringe and disaffected conservatives and blue dogs will form the core of a new moderate right party that leaves the GOP as the party that betrayed all it stood for in its first century.

I went to Allan Grayson's town hall in Central Florida last night and it was the epitomy of decorum , with the only exception being a couple of teabaggers who stormed out when he refused to get into a shouting match with them. He allowed a range of questions taking in sequence a question from a "for reform", an "undecided" and an "against". His nuanced explanation of his position and his obvious understanding (by his responses) of everything in the proposed bills blew everyone away and I know for a fact he converted one staunch republican in attendance. Lindsay is a bit of a douchebag but I feel for him not being able to take an intellegent position on any subject. Poor Repugs the inmates are running the asylum.

I refuse to buy it, Al. You're a dinosaur and the election of President Obama was your extinction event.

You can demonize the liberal Democrats 24/7, but all the invective in the Limbaugh Library won't be able to hide the fact that the Republican party is, and has been since Eisenhower's time, a sham. The Republican party now stands for one thing, and one thing only: Greed. Controlled by the corporations, the Republican party and its mantra of pseudo-conservatism are ill-equipped to handle the challenges of the new century. People have had enough of your fear, waste and nationalistic jingoism.
We want something better. Something Republicanism cannot provide. We want our country back. We want our Democracy back. We want the truth back.

Gee even wingnuts have more anti-wingnut balls than Democrats do. Sad.

Graham might be more destructive than tea-baggers ever get the chance to be though.

"A rainbow coalition of anger." Al, you're priceless! ROFLMAO! (FYI, Al is a parody).

John R - Glad to hear Grayson is as impressive in a town hall setting as he is on the House floor and with the media. We need more like him.

Lindsey is like Dr. Frankenstein running away from the monster he helped create. He has said so many despicable things over the past eight years that you'de have to be an amnesiac to belive any of the bullshit that comes out of his mouth.

Every time I see Lindsey I automatically visualize him in CSA regalia. He helped sow the wind, please Lindsey, own and enjoy the whirlwind!

The Republican Party isn't simply a sham. Rather it is a highly organized con game. Its central premises never really worked and as the poster above said it only seems to exist now to further the greed of its backers.

The GOP has another aspect though. A few years ago Naoto Kan, now the Vice Prime Minister of Japan, was asked to describe the then ruling LDP. He said, "There are so many people in the LDP with such diverse views that you can't really call it a party. It is actually just an 'election machine'.

Even a sham party can stay together indefinitely as long as it is successful in winning elections. When it no longer is, like the current LDP, it tends to explode in mid air.

Graham doesn't mind the Republican party being limited to white guys, he just wants everyone to tone down the anger.

I sometimes get the feeling that neither political party wants our support. I'm an angry white guy, and I sure wouldn't vote Republican. After the way they've completely abdicated their responsibility to govern, I'm not too inclined to vote Democratic, either.

If the GOP ever does wise up, the Democrats will be in a world of trouble.

"His remarks were not, as you might imagine, well received.
...
Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear anyone in a position of authority in the Republican Party tell the Teabagging crowd that the Republican Party shouldn't just be "the party of angry white guys." I wonder, though, if Graham realizes his admonition may be too late."

I saw the video of the event. Graham wasn't criticizing them because they were "angry white men" but because they were small government people and opposed the Bush/McCain/Graham foreign policy. He framing the narrative and the Left is buying it. He even bashed antiwar Republicans like Ron Paul and started defending the Bush foreign policy and told those who disagree to leave the party. He's the close minded one.

As Benen noted Graham is claiming the mantle of "moderation" but is really a neoconservative ideologue that just cares about promoting his ruinous foreign policy more than domestic policy.

Where is Graham on attacking the anti-Semitic, Apocalyptic kooks like John Hagee, Pat Robertson, etc? These cranks actually believe the End Times are upon us and are literally lobbying for a war in the Middle East to bring on the Rapture. They're the crazies and yet Graham, Frum and other "moderates" appear at their conferences and actually lobby for their support. Why? Because they agree on foreign policy and the Apocalyptic kooks run the GOP primary.

You guys on the Left should be more careful who you count as moderate or you'll wind up anointing the war mongering neocons as the "respectable opposition". If you think the debate over domestic issues has become caustic wait until you inject "national security" and "patriotism" back into the debate and welcome the neocons back from their well deserved exile.

Lindsay Graham is one of the crazies. Totally corrupt on illegal aliens.

Today the Republican party is in a death spiral on the wrong side of demographics and history and the crazies are at the controls. Graham might not actually leave the party. It will leave him.

The Republican party has become an "angry white guy" social movement. Fortunately there is no overarching personality at the center of the party willing to turn the "angry white guy" social movement into effective action.

I don't believe one will arise from among the current crop of crazies. Beck and Limbaugh are too devoted to their rich guy lifestyles, both are lazy, and both lack the essential leadership skills required of a dictator. Neither they nor any of the other talk radio personalities have a lean and hungry look. The Bush family has worn itself out. No group of people are more incapable of collective action than evangelicals. None of the angry politicians is very charming. The NRCs new website has a blank page on the topic of new leadership.

Charlie Cook might predict a Republican rebound next year, but I am not so sure. If the Democrats get their act together and the economy improves as predicted, the Republican death spiral will continue. I wonder what will replace the Republican party. Maybe a new Blue Dog party made up of Republican office holders and a small state Democratic senators.