Why Rick Santorum is a Threat to the GOP's Future

As much as I detest Rick Santorum - and view him as a severe mental case - the thought of him as the GOP presidential nominee has some perverse appeal: he'd likely lead the GOP to disaster in November. Even many in the GOP see this reality and a story in the Washington Post looks at the behind the scene effort in the GOP to torpedo Santorum. Frankly, perhaps only a crushing defeat with a "true conservative" as the standard bearer will kill once and for all the delusion of the far right (induced by drinking too much "Kool-Aid" and not mixing enough with the larger public) that the GOP's real problem is that its candidates are "too moderate." Better yet, perhaps the GOP would finally get the message that long term kissing up t the Christofascists is political suicide as the older generations die off. Here are some article excerpts:

[A] top Republican senator wants a new choice if Santorum wins Michigan. Why? “ ‘He’d lose 35 states,’ the senator said, predicting the same fate for Newt Gingrich.”

This senator is not alone. Mike Allen reports: A tippy-top Republican, unprompted, . . . sketched the germ of a plan for a new candidate if Rick Santorum upsets Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary on Feb. 28. Our friend brought visual aids: chicken-scratched versions of prosaic documents that are circulating among GOP insiders like nuclear-code sheets: In case of mayhem, break glass!

“Whom are we kidding? We’ll get slaughtered with Santorum as the nominee.”

You see, right-wing, socially conservative pundits don’t actually have to win elections, but experienced senators and party operatives who know how to win races outside Republican strongholds aren’t putting their heads in the sand. Santorum’s views and persona have limited appeal in a general election, and they know it.

There are, of course, many problems with the knight-in-shining-armor plan. Romney wouldn’t necessarily get out of the race, and the not-Santorum vote would then be subdivided. A new candidate who actually wants to run and hasn’t stood up the party at the altar would have to be located. And the knight might not be so popular with actual voters.

But put that aside for the moment. There is no “back-up” plan circulating if Romney wins. The assumption is that he’d do fine in a general election, so there’s no need to find a knight to block him from the nomination. But for Santorum, the opposite is true: His nomination, experienced Republicans know, would sink the party.

Republicans should remember 2010. Republicans could well have had control of the Senate had they not nominated characters such as Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle and Ken Buck — fire-breathing Tea Partyers, who were unable to win in swing or blue states. Those Republicans scurrying for a back-up plan don’t want to lose the White House (and likely the House, in the event of a landslide) as they did Senate seats in Delaware, Nevada and Colorado.

As I have often noted, the GOP leadership cynically created the Frankenstein monster of the Christian Right and the Tea Party. Now, the patients have taken over the asylum. I have no sympathy for the leadership now that they may have lost the ability to take back the asylum.