The GOP Has A Future... Kind Of

McCain may be the titular head of what's left of the Republican Party after the tsunami of '08 wipes them out a week from today but Republican strategists planning for the future aren't factoring him in at all. Delusional wingnuts may be in for a surprise next week but polling shows that-- short of this kind of widespread Republican voter fraud in Virginia, where the GOP may have given up on McCain and Gilmore but is desperate to save right-wing extremists Thelma Drake and Virgil Goode from surging Glenn Nye and Tom Perriello campaigns, in Ohio, and in Florida, where Republican operative know McCain is going down but where they hope they can save at least one of the 3 crooked reactionary Republicans, the notorious Diaz-Balarts and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, from long overdue political extinction-- McCain's goose is cooked and the situation is getting worse by the day. The goal of McCain's demoralized campaign loyalists (so not treacherous Mormon backstabbers) now is to get out of the 30s and into the 40s.

As a party, the Republican Establishment has written McCain off even before the votes are counted. Their interest in him as part of their future is reflected by his absence from their official website.

So who will pick up the ruins and try to rebuild-- in Congress and at the grassroots level? Yesterday we talked about a poll of far right bloggers that seems to accurately reflect not much-- other than the (extraordinarily narrow) mindset of the Republican base. Giving up on the useless battle to drum up a few extra points to burnish McCain's legacy, serious Republicans are looking past his defeat for who will control the levers of power within the crippled party machinery. It will be a war to the death between the corporate shills (the Greed and Selfishness wing) and the religionists (the Hatred and Bigotry wing), the latter vowing that anyone who thinks the GOP has been extreme so far-- and that would be around 75% of Americans-- ain't seen nothin' yet.

In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party's national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party.

The growing power of religious conservatives is alarming some moderate Republicans who believe that the party's main problem is that it has narrowed its appeal and alienated too many voters. They cite the aggressive tone of the McCain campaign in challenging Barack Obama, who has close to universal support from African American voters; as well as the push by many Republican leaders to clamp down on illegal immigration using rhetoric that has driven away Latinos.

...A focal point of the GOP fight is the selection of the next chairman of the Republican National Committee -- the party's power center for fundraising and strategic thinking. With various factions already trying to build support for their favored candidates, some conservatives are warning that McCain cannot serve as the party's spiritual guide even if he becomes president. The Arizona senator, after all, has a history of breaking with the party's mainstream on such issues as immigration and campaign financing.

"Committee members want to see our party move forward and be part of a branding process, as opposed to just simply supporting and putting a rubber stamp on the policies of a sitting president," said Robin Smith, chairwoman of the Tennessee state GOP and a supporter of turning the party to the right.

Conservative champion Rush Limbaugh, who often provides the rallying cry to the party's most ardent supporters via his radio program, last week laid out a similar warning, suggesting that a McCain win would do little to deter conservatives from pushing for major changes.

And the really psychotic right-wingers-- the ones who would be Gauleiters, Ortsgruppenleiters and Blockleiters if it was legal-- are already plotting to remodel the GOP around Sarah Palin. "If John McCain loses next week, Sarah Palin 'has absolutely earned a right to run in 2012,' says Greg Mueller, who was a senior aide in the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes. Mueller says Palin has given conservatives 'hope' and 'something to believe in.'" Yes, absolutely.