GOP Congressman Blasts GOP for Catering to "Extremes"; Say Party Is Incapable Of Governing

Once in a while there will be a ray of hope that not all in the Republican Party have gone utterly insane and/or totally prostituted themselves to the nastiest elements of the Christofascists and plutocrats.   A case in point is Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) - pictured at right - who represents a district in Upstate New York that includes a portion of the eastern Catskills where one of my aunts and uncles used to live.   While the GOP likes to claim the Democrats are the extremists, Hanna admits that most of the problem lies on the Republican side of the isle.  Think Progress looks at Hanna's statements and quotes my one time hometown newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard.  Here are highlights from Think Progress:   

Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) is fed up with the GOP. Hanna singled out Michele Bachmann’s “suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin be investigated to see if she has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood” as an example of a party that has gone off the rails.

The Syaracuse Post-Standard has the story:

“I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we — I mean the Republican Party — are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history,” he told The Post-Standard editorial board.

…“We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides…” he said. “If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”

…“I would say that the friends I have in the Democratic Party I find … much more congenial — a little less anger,” he said.

BuzzFeed reports that Hanna is not alone and “moderate members of the House GOP conference feel that Boehner, who has struggled with an often raucous and openly defiant right wing, has forced them to go along with conservative demands but has provided them little in return.”

Yes, Hanna is in the tiny minority of sane people left in the GOP, but at least there are a few folks who don't qualify as patients in the asylum.