The Implosion of the Republican Party

The Republican Party has gone insane. At least the far-right, ultra-conservative wing of the party has. In what has to be the most stunning "endorsement" of the 2008 campaign, Ann Coulter, the poster girl for extremism within the conservative wing of the Republican Party, said yesterday that she would vote for Hillary Clinton rather than John McCain, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Coulter even went so far as to say she would campaign for Clinton if McCain wins the Republican nomination. I highly doubt that Senator Clinton would want Coulter anywhere near her campaign, but the very idea shows how the neo-conservatives react when they don't get to make the rules anymore: they pick up their toys and go home.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about the insane anti-gay slur Ann Coulter made in comments about Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. I thought then that it might be the end of Coulter, much like racial slurs did in Don Imus. Unfortunately, she just kept a low profile for a while so she could make an even more outrageous comment, perhaps the most stunning of her career.

According to a story on CNN.com, Coulter said: "If you are looking at substance rather than if there is an R or a D after his name, manifestly, if he's our candidate, than Hillary is going to be our girl, because she's more conservative than he is. John McCain is not only bad for Republicanism, which he definitely is, he is bad for the country."

Not to be outdone, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh earlier in the week implied that McCain's rise is a plot by the Republican "establishment" to rid the party of conservative influence. Limbaugh has made no secret of his opposition to McCain, who he clearly feels is not conservative enough to be the party's standard-bearer.

While McCain has never been the darling of Republican conservatives, who consider the term "moderate" almost as offensive as "liberal," this is just one in a long line of examples of the way neo-cons rebel when they don't get a candidate that will support their agenda to the exclusion of all others (i.e. George W. Bush). Conservatives abandoned Bob Dole in 1996 because he wasn't pro-life enough for their liking. Evangelical talk-radio host James Dobson has gone so far as to say he would encourage his listeners to stay home on Election Day if the Republican nominee isn't Christian enough, a claim he made about Fred Thompson earlier this year.

Or maybe they're not crazy at all. It could simply be a vast right-wing conspiracy, a way to get people to vote for McCain. After all, who in their right mind would vote for someone Ann Coulter liked?