MY FAVORITE MOMENTS IN TONIGHT'S REPUBLICAN HATEFEST

The audience was awesome! They were so filled with hatred and right wing fanaticism that they really showed the American public why the GOP is now just a small, narrow-minded regional party of the Old Confederacy. The winner tonight was the same guy who wins all the Republican polls: Mr. None of the Above. It was interesting how badly behaved all the candidates were. Not one of them paid any attention to the time limits; they are all rule-breaking, untrustworthy cheats. I can't imagine anyone with a bit of sense watching them and thinking any of them are fit for any public office.

It was off to an hilarious start with Giuliani and Romney ripping each other apart over immigration. After Romney attacked Giuliani for running NY as a sanctuary city, Giuliani's face got all tight and narrow and I thought he would lurch at Romney and tear his throat out. Instead he unveiled a well prepared rebuttal, accusing Romney of having a "sanctuary mansion." When the exchange was done there was blood all over the stage. Tancredo was giggling and said it was great seeing the other candidates trying to "out-Tancredo Tancredo."

Frederick of Hollywood kind of defended Romney's sanctuary mansion by preparing the country for when it comes out that he's hired plenty of undocumented workers over the years. McCain was loudly boo-ed when he tried tap-dancing over a definition of "amnesty" in front of an audience that could only accept one answer: deport them all. McCain answered back the boo-ers by declaring that the American people don't believe Washington on amnesty because "we failed on Katrina... Iraq... corruption... and out of control spending." Tancredo had the last word on immigration by saying he isn't just anti-illegal immigration; he's anti-legal immigration. The audience cheered. Welcome to Xenophobia. I wonder what Florida's large Cuban-Republican population was thinking just then.

I also found it awesome when someone asked Ron Paul if he's a conspiracy nut and he basically said "yes." Soon after McCain played the Hitler card against Paul. And that was followed by a demand from Grover Norquist that each candidate pledge to adhere to his philosophy of government (i.e.- more Katrinas); ironically it was either a weird shadow or he was sporting a Hitler mustache.

And since it was a Republican debate there were plenty of questions about their most beloved issues, guns, gays, gynecology and gods. One deranged loon from Dallas, Joseph Dearing, who seemed to be on meth, demanded each candidate reveal if he believed every literal word of The Buy Bull. Giuliani said he didn't believe in Jonah in the belly of a whale. Romney said it's the word of God and he claimed, disingenuously, that he believes every single word.

A couple of other good random moments
* McCain branding Romney (and without mentioning him-- no one did-- Bush) a torturer.
* When someone asked Huckabee what Jesus would do about the death penalty, Huckabee started bragging he was responsible for more executions than anyone else on the stage.
* Tancredo was so anti-immigrant that he even characterized defective Chinese toys as "item-immigration."
* Thompson's vicious attack ad
* The Republican audience booing a gay general who served his country for decades
* Giuliani straight-out lying about the security payments that were made for his trips to visit his mistress