It won't last long,

so I don't want to seem like I'm gloating, but the right wing of the Republican Party (and yes, by singling out the 'right' wing, I'm implying that there's a 'moderate' wing of the GOP) is imploding.

The vaunted Christian Coalition splintered in August, with the group's state branches in Alabama and Georgia leaving the main group to form their own organizations.

Locally, we could see the fracturing begin in October (before the election even!) when the AZ Republican Party demanded the resignations of three Republican mayors for daring to openly support Governor Napolitano, a moderate Democrat, for re-election.

After the election, the ideological bloodletting and insanity continued -

...Sometimes at the local level here in AZ, with JD Hayworth blaming fellow Republican Congressmen Jeff Flake and John Shadegg for his defeat at the hands of Harry Mitchell.

...Sometimes at the federal level, with the return of Trent Lott, supporter of ardent racial segregationalist Strom Thurmond, to the Republican leadership in the Senate, as minority whip.

...Sometimes in other local communities, such as Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, where the chair of the Woodbury County Republican Party was kicked out of his post for criticizing the "Christian fascists" in the party for pushing it outside the mainstream of society, causing the downfall of the Republicans in the last election.

Nationally, within the fringes of the party, even the Christian conservatives are turning on each other.

The president-elect of the Christian Coalition, the Reverend Joel Hunter, resigned even before taking office. Apparently he was running into doctrinal conflicts within the upper echelon of the organization.

Not because he supports abortion, because he doesn't.

Not because he supports same-sex marriage, because he doesn't.

Nope, the conflict is rooted in the fact that he's regarded as too liberal - he wanted to focus some of the organization's attention on poverty and the environment. He was told "they're not our issues, that's not our base" by the organization's board.

If the Christian right-wing ever stops to wonder why they are being politically marginalized so quickly, they only need to look at that attitude.


There are other examples (Rumsfeld's resignation doesn't make the list. I think he was gone regardless of the outcome of the midterms) but they're all in the same vein - the electorate called for a move to moderation; the Republican response has been to move farther to the extreme, and to castigate and ostracize any party members that don't drink from that particular pitcher of Kool-Aid.

It won't last forever, though it may last through 2008.

While there are a number of Democratic candidates mulling a run for the presidency, and they all have their ardent supporters, none of the names floated so far totally turns off a major bloc of the party. (Of course, that's subject to change. :) )

On the other hand, the major Republican names that are out there - John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney - all have significant critics within their own party.

[Note: Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, has already started trying to appease the Christian right wing segment of the party by suing the Massachusetts legislature to force them to put a measure banning same-sex marriage on the 2008 ballot.]

Anyway, this could be fun to watch for a while, though I expect the Republicans to smarten up a little - for them, doctrinal purity always takes a backseat to political power, and they want to regain some of the power they lost, and the lucrative perks that go with it, in the next cycle.

Oh, and speaking of drinking "Kool-Aid" - Greg at EspressoPundit has a nice little interview with a candidate for the chair of the LD11 Reps {drumroll, please... :) }...

Fife Symington.

If that's how they're thinking, what's next?

David Petersen for Treasurer of the state party?

Clif Bennett operating the State Senate daycare center?

Evan Mecham for chair of the AZ Republican Diversity Committee?

JD Hayworth running the Reps' LD8 Civility Committee?

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid guys.