GOP Base Rips Attempts at Moderation

UPDATED: As further proof of just how insane the GOP has become, Emperor Palpatine Cheney has picked Rush Limbaugh as more representative of the party than Colin Powell. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Dick Cheney made clear Sunday he'd rather follow firebrand broadcaster Rush Limbaugh than former Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell into political battle over the future of the Republican Party.

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Even as Cheney embraced efforts to expand the party by ex-Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and the House's No. 2 Republican, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the former vice president appeared to write his one-time colleague Powell out of the GOP. Asked about recent verbal broadsides between Limbaugh and Powell, Cheney said, "If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican."

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When one builds a political party based on religious fanaticism it is truly a pact with the Devil and in the longer term is definitely a case of having sold the soul of the party to those who reject objective fact, science, education, and a host of other things that come into play if the political party is to survive as times and society change. The GOP cynically made a pact with religious fundamentalist extremists in the short term hope of winning power. Now, the GOP finds that it cannot easily unshackle itself from the Frankenstein monster that it created. Indeed, it may be impossible to save the GOP and moderate conservatives may well find that creating a new party may be the more successful route to follow - at least until such time as the GOP totally crashes and burns after which it can be recreated free from religious fanatic influences. Even the largely conservative Virginian Pilot has picked up on the difficulty of steering the GOP back toward a course where AFA, FOTF, and CWFA, white supremacists, and similar nutcase organizations are not dictating the party platform. Here are some story highlights:

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Social conservatives are blasting the National Council for a New America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) nascent effort to rebrand the Republican Party, as a misguided and weak-kneed initiative that is out of touch with the GOP rank and file.

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[S]ocial conservatives couldn’t help but notice that the policy areas the group will focus on included no mention of same-sex marriage, immigration or abortion. And the roster of GOP luminaries who signed on to the effort was missing a few of the pols who are most popular with values voters. “The moderates have been saying the same thing all these years, and now they’re just seeing a renewed opportunity to push their ideas,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a leading opponent of gay marriage.
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Mike Huckabee . . . also knocked Bush, who suggested at the group’s first town hall event on Saturday that it was time to get past “nostalgia” for the Reagan era. “Frankly, the party was in pretty good shape then and can be again, but Ronald Reagan didn't summarily dismiss values voters like this new group of ‘experts’ has by not listing any of the issues that still matter to many of those common Americans this group wants to listen to,” Huckabee said.

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“Too many Republican leaders are running scared on the claims of the left and the media that social conservatism is a dead-end for the GOP,” the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins said in a statement. “If that were the case, why are pro-family leaders like Mike Huckabee creating such excitement in the conservative base? The Republican establishment doesn't draw a crowd.” Another critic, influential conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, ripped the group’s proposed “listening tour” as a “scam” on his Tuesday show.

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You get the drift of what rational conservatives will be faced with if they try to wean the party from Kool-Aid. That Mike Huckabee - who wants the U.S. Constitution modified to parallel Biblical law - Tony Perkins and Rush Limbaugh claim to speak for the real Republican Party shows how far the GOP has fallen and just how out of touch with reality the party "base" has become.