REPUBLICANS THINK BUSH HAS LOST HIS MIND-- AND THAT "NONE OF THE ABOVE" WOULD BE THE BEST NOMINEE FOR THEIR PARTY'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

When I first started exploring what the Internet had to offer in the way of political activism, in a pre-blog world, I ran into a bunch of like-minded folks who were battling it out with wingnuts on the newsgroups. I hadn't had a lot of first hand experience with extreme right wingers so at first I was surprised to see how really crazy and demented so many of them are. I remember one really obnoxious one who refused to pay taxes and how his poor family was seeking shelter under a highway overpass when he was hauled off to prison. And it was among this group that I first came across Richard Mellon-Scaife and learned how truly dangerous-- far more than a loon who wouldn't pay his taxes-- he is to America. Not just to America in the abstract but to flesh and blood Americans. One of our fellow online activists, Steve Kangas, was murdered, allegedly (I have to say that to protect myself from a potential law suit) at Scaife's direction.

Of the few Americans who have heard of Scaife at all, most know about him as the extremist billionaire who financed the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and all the calumny (the Arkansas Project) directed at President Clinton with the purpose of keeping him too overwhelmed to govern effectively.

Sunday Scaife's very own personal newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published a startling editorial calling Bush's Iraq policies-- the ones endorsed by Giuliani, Romney, Thompson and McCain-- a prescription for American suicide. I don't think Scaife oversees the writing of the paper's editorials. But I do know that people who write editorials on important matters that he doesn't agree with lose their jobs... instantly.

Perhaps Jack Murtha put it best: The Pennsylvania congressman, among the first to make the cogent argument that staying the course in Iraq was the exercise in futility that indeed the war has become, says President Bush is delusional.

Based on the president's recent performance, we could not agree more. "Staying the course" is not simply futile-- it is a prescription for American suicide.

We've urged for months to bring our troops home. Now is the time.

"Progress" has become such a nuanced, parsed and tortured term that it no longer has meaning.

I think Jon Stewart addressed this very point last night on the Daily Show: "Obviously, the president defining progress now as 'moving forward through time.'" And like Stewart, Scaife's paper thinks Bush has lost his mind. "President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk 'mass killings on a horrific scale.' What do we have today, sir? And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability. If the president won't do the right thing and end this war, the people must. The House has voted to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April. The Senate must follow suit."

I haven't heard about any editors there losing their jobs. Forget about the LBJ/Cronkite analogy; if Bush has lost Scaife, he's got nothing left. Today's Associated Press-Ipsos poll found what DWT has been saying all year: if None of the Above was an option, he'd win the Republican presidential nomination.

Nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to back top-tier hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain or Mitt Romney, and no one candidate has emerged as the clear front-runner among Christian evangelicals. Such dissatisfaction underscores the volatility of the 2008 GOP nomination fight.

..."Democrats are reasonably comfortable with the range of choices. The Democratic attitude is that three or four of these guys would be fine," said David Redlawsk, a University of Iowa political scientist. "The Republicans don't have that; particularly among the conservatives there's a real split. They just don't see candidates who reflect their interests and who they also view as viable."

More Republicans have become apathetic about their top options over the past month.
A hefty 23 percent can't or won't say which candidate they would back, a jump from the 14 percent who took a pass in June.

Giuliani's popularity continued to decline steadily as he faced a spate of headline headaches, came under increased scrutiny and saw the potential entry of Thompson in the mix; his support is at 21 percent compared with 27 percent in June and 35 percent in March.

The former New York mayor is running virtually even with Thompson, who has become a threat without even officially entering the race. The actor and former Tennessee senator has essentially stayed steady at 19 percent. McCain, the Arizona senator who is revamping his nearly broke campaign, clocked in a bit lower at 15 percent, while Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, remained at 11 percent.

None of the top candidates has a clear lead among Christian evangelicals, a critical part of the GOP base that has had considerable sway in past Republican primaries. Giuliani, a thrice-married backer of abortion rights and gay rights, had 20 percent support-- roughly even with Thompson and McCain who have one divorce each in their pasts. Romney, a Mormon who has been married for three decades, was in the single digits.