Today's GOP is a Train Wreck

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker has apparently strayed off the reservation and missed the de rigueur imbibing of of Kool-Aid mandated by the Tea Party  and Christofascists who now control the Republican Party.  Would that she would finally jump ship and side with sanity and rational though once and for all.  In a column Parker rightly describes today's GOP as a train wreck and endorses throwing some of the lunatic faction - think Ted Cruz, et al - overboard in order to save the GOP ship.  Here are some column highlights:

In trying to understand the Republican Party’s internal battles, it helps to think of Michael and Sonny.  Corleone, that is.

On one side we have Sonny, the hotheaded, impulsive, shoot-now-take-names-later son of Don Corleone. On Capitol Hill, he personifies the tea party followers who would rather die on principle than live to win a later day.

On the other side, we have Michael, the cooler-headed son and intellectual strategist. On the Hill, Michael represents the so-called establishment legislators who understand the way forward but thus far have been reluctant to pull the trigger.

Before action, however, there should be a plan, which has been demonstrably missing in recent weeks.

Remember the “train wreck” that Republicans kept promising? Well, guess what. It’s happening.

[A]lmost two weeks after the government shutdown, polls are showing a shift in Democrats’ favor. Not only do fewer Americans view Republicans in a positive light (28 percent, according to Gallup) but they’re becoming more , not less, approving of Obamacare. While Republicans were nudging the can up the road on the debt ceiling, approval for Obamacare leapt up 7 points, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll .

Great job, Teddy!  That would be Ted Cruz, the Texas senator . . . . Cruz is neither Michael nor Sonny but the star of his own movie. He’s Ted bin Laden — the guy who hands out suicide vests and then goes to lunch. 

What needs to happen is for certain parties to become wiser and to absorb this simple truth: You cannot govern if you cannot win.

Tea party warriors may prefer to perish on principle, but perish they will. And, if something doesn’t change fast and soon, the fear is that they’ll take down GOP control of the House with them. Forget the Senate in 2014. And forget the White House for the foreseeable future. 

Unless, that is, the hard-right suicide flame-throwers can be neutralized or converted. The latter isn’t likely when the echo chamber cheers them on, and while organizations such as Heritage Action are grading legislators on their “conservative” performance. The threat of facing a primary challenge in their districts from someone even loonier keeps many in lockstep with Sonny.

Thus, the only alternative is a systematic, strategic purge of the GOP’s Sonny side. (Sonny Side Down?) Rational conservatives who understand that governing requires compromise, not just “winning,” need to form their own groups to first protect their reasonable legislators and then actively recruit and elect strong, likable candidates who can win general elections. They need to create their own scorecards to grade the obstructionists.

Storming the barricades may be fine at times, but it’s helpful also to have a plan. Remember the day after shock and awe? Now what? This is essentially where the GOP finds itself today. It shut down the government — and now what? It tried to defund the un-defundable (Obamacare was already funded), and now people are gravitating toward the train wreck.  

Now what? Painful though it may be to witness, it may be time for Sonny to take a drive through the toll plaza. Maybe he could give Ted bin Laden a lift. (That’s a metaphor, too.)

What Parker says is largely on point.  Will anyone in the GOP listen?  Probably not.  Meanwhile, I hope  Parker has a flak jacket and isn't easily worried by death threats which will likely come from the "godly Christian" base of the GOP.