HOW MANY YEARS WILL IT TAKE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO COME BACK TO LIFE AFTER 2008?

It might be too early to say kaddish over the rotting, albeit still breathing, corpse of the Republican Party. But it's more than just Bush's and Cheney's own abysmal popularity ratings that is making the party anathema to more Americans by the day. Bush's lose/lose immigration bill will surely be another nail in the GOP coffin. But this week Gloria Borger at US News & World Report asks if it is Rudy Giuliani who is splitting the Republican Party apart at the seams.

"The once predictable alliance" between the greedy and selfish on the one hand and the bigots, haters and paranoid on the other hand "is on the verge of unraveling, largely because of one unruly presidential candidate-Rudy Giuliani. He's pro-abortion rights, pro-gun control, and pro-gay civil rights. He's been married three times and is publicly feuding with his children. And, by the way, he's in the top tier in the polls."

Giuliani's prancing around in full drag, his scandalous personal life, and his flimsy positions on the life and death bread and butter issues to the professional religionist wing of the GOP, is driving them bonkers. And it isn't only crackpot Colorado ayatollah Jimmy Dobson who's threatening to blow the party apart if they nominate Giuliani. "Economic conservatives seem to be saying we're codependent on them, saying our issues are not important," sniffs Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a large Christian conservative group. "They seem to think we'll fall in line and support their candidate. Well, they're wrong. ...We have a lot of places to go. We can go shopping."

Borger thinks the narrow-minded haters and bigots account for as much as 40% of the Republican primary voters. With someone like Dobson saying he'd rather see the GOP lose than help make someone as immoral as Giuliani president, the Republicans are in utter disarray. They built a bed on Hatred and Intolerance and now they have to suffer the consequences-- as right-wing Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Saxby Chamberpot (R-GA) both discovered when they tried defending Bush's quasi-tolerant/much unloved immigration bill... and got roundly booed and hissed... and Republican Party conventions in their own states.


The messy and prolonged battle of resignations of Republi-crooks John Doolittle (CA-04), Rick Renzi (AZ-01), Paul "Comblicker" Wolfowitz and Alberto Gonzales, played out daily on the mass media isn't doing the GOP any good either. Yesterday Republican Senator Arlen Specter said Gonzales may resign rather than face No Confidence votes in the House and Senate. (Miss McConnell, of course, plans to obstruct a vote in the Senate, where half a dozen of his own reactionary caucus members have already called on Gonzles to step down, but it will move forward in the House with bipartisan support.) Citizen activists are tired of the dilly-dallying with this non-binding stuff and are asking Congress to start impeachment proceeding against Gonzales immediately. You can click the link to watch the video and sign the petition.