Boehner Beats Lungren As Minority Leader-- But Is Forced To Take On Two Far Right Extremists

100 bottles of beer on the wall, 100 bottles of beer...

Republican members of Congress like Boehner cause he's so hands off and lets them do whatever they want and because he keeps the corporate cash flowing their way-- even though this cycle was the first time since 1994 that slimy corrupt PACs gave more to Dems than to Repugs. But they have managed to notice that there are almost 5 dozen fewer of them than there were before Boehner took over. And it isn't only that the GOP is failing to win open seats in red districts-- which they are failing to do spectacularly-- but that they are also seeing, despite all the carefully crafted incumbent protection schemes in place-- colleagues being defeated in every part of the country. This month they watched GOP hotshots like Robin Hayes (NC), Joe Knollenberg (MI), Tim Walberg (MI), Randy Kuhl (NY), Virgil Goode (VA), Thelma Drake (VA), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Chris Shays (CT), Steve Chabot (OH), Jon Porter (NV), Ric Keller (FL), Tom Feeney (FL) all lose their seats, some in landslides. On top of that, another two dozen more managed to eke out another 2-year term by the skin of his or her teeth, guaranteeing well-financed challenges in 2010. Among those who just barely escaped near death experiences are rightists John Shadegg (AZ), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Michael McCaul (TX), Brian Bilbray (CA), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Michele Bachmann (MN), Ken Calvert (CA), Dean Heller (NV), Henry Brown (SC), Judy Biggert (IL), Dana Rohrabacher (CA), David Dreier (CA), Thaddeus McCotter (MI), Dave Reichert (WA), Jim Gerlach (PA), Addison Wilson (SC) and Dan Lungren (CA).

And speaking of Lungren's near loss-- he barely managed to win 50% of the votes-- he made a lunatic attempt to unseat Boehner today on behalf of all the GOP's walking wounded. He only got a small handful of votes against the seemingly teflon Boehner. "It's as though the captain of the Titanic survived and got tapped to run another transatlantic cruise."

But the Republican caucus did force the hapless but well-tanned and weepy Boehner to accept two radical right extremists, Mike Pence (IN) and Eric Cantor (VA) as his #2 and #3, scapegoating Roy Blunt (MO) and Howdy Doody (FL) as the culprits in the disaster that the Republican House caucus just went through. Tom Cole (OK), a dismal failure, was booted out of his job as NRCC chair-- how did he last as long as he did??-- and replaced by Pete Sessions (TX), who is likely to be even more inept and a bigger failure.

Blunt and Doody are terrible leaders; no doubt about it. But were they responsible for the spectacular losses this year? Of course not. God was. And although if He exists I'm sure he recognizes the GOP as the enemy of all Creation, I'm not talking about this-- or rather conservative columnist Kathleen Parker (in today's Washington Post) isn't-- in terms of God hating Republicans.

[T]he evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth-- as long as we're setting ourselves free-- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

...It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party-- and conservatism with it-- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Religious conservatives become defensive at any suggestion that they've had something to do with the GOP's erosion. And, though the recent Democratic sweep can be attributed in large part to a referendum on Bush and the failing economy, three long-term trends identified by Emory University's Alan Abramowitz have been devastating to the Republican Party: increasing racial diversity, declining marriage rates and changes in religious beliefs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

The dominant Know Nothing/KKK wing of the party, however, sees it differently. That's because in their backward, dark precincts, bigotry, racism, homophobia, hatred and a dependence on ignorance and fear works for them. Know Nothing hacks like Mark Sanford (R-SC), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and, of course, Miss Alaska are driving the train as it hurtles over the Bridge to... you guessed it.

You've got the lunatic fringe-- now the GOP mainstream-- screaming that McCain is a traitor to conservatism and that they need to clean house and make the Republican Party the exclusive domain of witch hunters, exorcists and hooded knights like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal, and Mark Sanford.

That Republicans are coalescing around these three governors is also revealing for who is not included. Several years ago Christie Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator, wrote a book called It's My Party Too. She used that treatise to argue for the party to abandon its conservative roots. Even after two serious GOP drubbings at the polls, she has found no takers. Likewise, Lincoln Chaffee, the former Rhode Island Senator once labeled a "Republican in Name Only," was still complaining last week to the Washington Post that "right-wing talk show hosts and the Ann Coulters and that ilk" never understood that the GOP needs people like him.