Like a soldier under attack and firing wildly in all directions,
Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist have gone bezerk. They are attacking not only Howard Dean, but John McCain through name-calling.
It seems that Karl Rove's namecalling against the Democrats has opened a Pandora's Box of negativity, as the followers are operating off the leader's cues.
Speaking to the Young Republicans, DeLay pronounced judgement on his party:
Speaking before a group of college-age Republicans, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay decried recent attacks by prominent Democrats as "jaw-dropping and unprecedented in my lifetime."
Actually, Karl Rove's attacks on the Democrat's patriotism is jaw-dropping and unprecendented.
Grover Norquist's attacks on McCain were the attacks that sent shock waves through the GOP community:
Speaking to the same group a few hours later, party strategist Grover Norquist lambasted three Republicans who broke party ranks over the issue of judicial filibusters. He referred to them as "the two girls from Maine and the nut-job from Arizona" - Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and John McCain.
There is sexism implied here -- the implication is that Collins and Snowe are better off being seen like most traditional women are and not heard. Many right-wingers say that women are not emotionally suited for leadership positions and should therefore stay home, be submissive, and let the men make the big decisions.
In the article, a spokeswoman said that Snowe doesn't answer to right-wingers like Norquist, but to the people of Maine.
Norquist, as pointed out in the article, is under investigation by McCain for his ties to Jack Abramoff:
But it was the broadside by Mr. Norquist - who is president of Americans for Tax Reform and ran the College Republicans when Mr. Abramoff was its chairman - that raised eyebrows among the students, particularly the reference to Mr. McCain.
Mr. McCain is chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which is investigating Mr. Abramoff's lobbying on behalf of tribal casino interests. Tension between the two intensified last month, when the committee subpoenaed the financial records of Mr. Norquist's nonprofit group, including the organization's donor list. Testimony and records showed some tribal funds were directed to Mr. Norquist's organization. But there has been no allegation of wrongdoing by Mr. Norquist.
I suggest these attacks on McCain, delivered by a Rove surrogate, were done for a reason: They were an attempt to get him back in lockstep with the rest of the party. As someone else pointed out, Rove's inflammatory remarks were aimed as much at Republicans by warning them what to avoid as they were at Democrats.
There is no love lost between McCain and the hard right. While he can have his Senate seat for as long as he wants it, the right can make things very hard for him if he decides to run for President by having people like Norquist make inflammatory speeches against him.
For McCain's part, he has no compunction about investigating Norquist for wrongdoing. Norquist's wrath suggests that McCain may be on to something and that Norquist is getting scared.
A recent poll showed Guliani and McCain in the lead, way ahead of anybody else. However, 26% said they would either not vote or were not sure. It is clear that the right is not enthused with either the pro-choice Guliani, or McCain, whom some right-wingers see as a traitor. However, nobody has succeeded in creating a buzz which would knock them off their perch. I think we have a real chance to win in 2008, given the fact that many right-wingers would rather stay home than vote for a pro-choice candidate like Guliani or someone as hated by the right as McCain.
The hatred of McCain by the right is such that on some of the right-wing blogs there has been talk about primarying McCain ally Lindsey Graham out of office despite Graham's credentials as an impeachment manager for the trial of Clinton and a military judge.
