(Cross-posted from The Left Coaster.)
Four days ago I wrote that continued unified support of Bush from the Republican party and its base made absolutely no sense: rational political actors, always primarily attuned to self-preservation, should never commit political suicide. Continued GOP support for Bush and the war means a Democratic presidency 2008 and Democrats dreaming of decades-long supermajorities in Congress, it’s going to be total Democratic rout if the GOP sticks with Bush.
Sure enough two days after SOTU ABC News runs a story that "Republicans Beat Up On Bush." I wouldn’t go so far as to state Snowe, Hagel, Specter, and Brownback represent the Republican party, but after all the years of enforced unity and smears of aiding terrorists to anyone who disagreed with Bush this is a significant break from Bush and the war, these four will be joined by many, many more GOP senators this year.
Also feeling the impending crackup was Townhall blogger Hugh Hewitt (h/t Glenn Greenwald), who panicked yesterday and posted a creepy, authoritarian pledge on loyalty to all the insanity; take the pledge to show how loyal one is to death, lying and political suicide.
I was pleased to see that Glenn Reynolds, of course, likes the pledge and wrote that opposition to the surge was actually political suicide, not blind allegiance to a war felon who’s going to wipe the GOP everywhere for at least a decade. When Glenn Reynolds is precisely opposite your position you know you’re on the right track.
Perusing the right-hand side of the exemplary Dauo Report Jules Crittenden whines that he’s "...awfully tired of debating whether our current President is bad. Psychopaths are out there trying to kill Americans. That’s the Number One issue. What is the Democratic Congress going to do about it?"
What are the Democrats going to do about it? Watch the GOP commit political suicide, Jules, watch very intently indeed, when they’re not actively helping. We’re not afraid of anyone, least of all psychopaths who are no threat to this country, and the number one issue is stopping the war, that's what the majority of this country wants. To our great sorrow right now Democrats in Congress can’t stop a war with a President who refuses to go along, it can’t be done, but the price to pay for that insanity will be the blasted, complete oblivion status of the Republican Party for at least a decade, Jules. Get used to it and stop that whining, God. [At least it eventually got edited out of the post.]
Vivid partisan that I am, I ruefully don’t want to watch the GOP commit political suicide, I want them to come to their senses, help kick Bush and Cheney out and stop the war. We all know the chances of that.
Grand Old Party Implosion, here we come. Too bad they’ve blown up the budget, the Bill of Rights and the Middle East along the way, or watching the Republicans self-destruct would be fun.
[UPDATE:] I should have included the insight of enviably brilliant Mathew Yglesias, who noted recently that the Cheney Phenomenon has left the GOP without a presidential successor for 2008. It's an automatic prescription for vicious infighting to get the 2008 nomination, and it's going to make this implosion even fiercer, it that's possible.