BLEAK FUTURE FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS SHOWING UP IN THE LACK OF INTEREST IN THE ELECTIONS BY GOP VOTERS

We've mentioned a few times-- as evidence that even Republican voters find the pathetic pygmies a totally implausible lot as prospects for the presidency (of the United States)-- that Democrats are flocking to the polls and caucuses in record numbers while Republicans are just staying away and praying None of the Above manages to win their party's nomination. GOP propagandists are popping up all over the net with fake stats trying to prove that Republicans are motivated and voting in droves. I've dug up all the final official voter turn-out numbers in the states where both parties competed.

In Iowa 239,000 Democrats took part in the caucuses. Slightly less than half that number took part in the GOP caucuses, 118,691. Iowa is supposed to be a 50/50 state. It was a little closer in the next contest, also a 50/50 state, New Hampshire. 284,104 Democrats showed up. Only 233,381 Republicans bothered with their motley assortment of crooks and thieves running to be the next George Bush. And in Nevada-- the state Willard claims legitimizes him as a front runner-- 117,599 Democrats came to vote and only 44,324 Republicans, almost a third of whom were Mormons intent on getting one of their own into the White House, caucused. Pretty sad.

If you add the totals, that's 640,703 motivated Democrats and 396,396 Republicans-- and none of those are the big Democratic states. But there's another way to look at these numbers. Despite Willard's silly pretensions (and open wallet), McCain is the front runner. But compare his vote totals this year with how he did last time he ran. In 2000 McCain pulled 115,490 votes in New Hampshire and 237,888 in South Carolina. This year he won both states-- by default since very few Republicans even voted. This year McCain took 88,466 votes in New Hampshire and 147,283 votes in South Carolina. Jesus, are these guys in trouble!

Of course, if Romney or the Huckster manages to beat back McCain in Florida-- a very real prospect-- a brokered convention could still be how the GOP picks its nominee. Imagine what they could come up with in a smoke-filled backroom: Cheney and Jeb or Frist and Santorum. How about George Allen and Katherine Harris? Charlie Crist, popular Republican governor of Florida is very worried about the future of his party's future? Why?

What's the difference between 2008 and four years ago, he was asked. "The past four years," Crist replied.

[JANUARY 26 UPDATE: SOUTH CAROLINA SAME AS THE OTHER STATES-- MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC TURNOUT... MEDIOCRE GOP TURNOUT

529,789 Democrats voted and only 442,918 Republicans bothered to chose between the pygmies. Obama alone got more votes that McCain and Huckleberry, the #1 and 2 pygmies. And the future looks even bleaker for the Party of Hatred and Greed. Over 71,000 young Democrats voted and only 44,000 young wingnuts. Just think, it won't be long before the GOP is extinct, just like endangered species they are killing off.]


UPDATE: GOP HACKS NOW CLAIM IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT

True, Bush is the worst ever occupant of the White House, but Peggy Noonan's attempt to shift all the blame onto his shoulders is bogus-- even beyond the fact that the entire GOP wholeheartedly cheered on every disastrous initiative his regime took. It is the philosophic underpinings of modern Republican Party ideology that is to blame, far more than just a lazy, incompetent, corrupt moron in the White House or his clueless followers and the avaricious cronies surrounding him.

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.