"Is the GOP self-destructing?"

[applegrove]

Is the GOP self-destructing?


by Doyle McManus at the LA Times


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-column-gop-rift-20130804,0,7583769.column

"SNIP.................................

But the current brawl in the GOP seems more destructive and personal than most. McCain has called Paul and Cruz "wacko birds," for example, while Cruz called his GOP critics the "surrender caucus." Christie warned that Paul's views were "very dangerous." Paul responded by calling Christie "the king of bacon."

Part of the problem is that Republicans in the Senate and the House have grown steadily more conservative, with fewer compromise-friendly moderates in their ranks. To Cruz and other tea party insurgents, traditional Republicans are part of the problem, not part of the solution. "I don't trust the Republicans," Cruz has said. "It is leadership in both parties that has gotten us into this mess."

Another reason for the bickering is that the most committed Republican voters aren't interested in compromise. A poll released last week by the Pew Research Center found that most Republican voters don't think the GOP is conservative enough — especially on government spending, where the faithful are squarely against further deal-making.

But perhaps the biggest problem the Republicans have is one of leadership. When asked to identify the leader of the Republican Party, the first-place winner in the Pew poll was, accurately enough, "nobody."


.................................SNIP"

[MADem]

1. Not fast enough to suit me, though it does seem as though their long vaunted

"party discipline" is falling apart at the seams.

[Squinch]

2. Your mouth, God's ears, as they say.

These guys are evil.

[leftstreet]

3. The party is already dead. These are the dregs

McCains and Pauls and Boehners are what's left after voters rejected Reagan piss-down economics and the religious whacko right

They need some new blood or something

[0rganism]

4. for a dead party the sure do control a lot of the country

but looking at how abysmally they run things, i'd go along with the theory that they're a bunch of power-mad zombies.

[Boomerproud]

8. You win the thread.

We are screaming for the Democratic "leadership" to do SOMETHING. They do not have the smarts or the will to put the well-deserved knife in to save us or themselves.

[randome]

10. Maybe it's like the fall of Rome.

People didn't fully realize it had fallen until someone noticed cows grazing on the Senate lawn.

We're almost at that cow-grazing moment.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[octoberlib]

5. No. nt

[randome]

6. McCain/Palin and Romney/Ryan. It's been clear for some time that no one is in charge.

The only question is 'How much longer can they coast?' A dead tree can remain in place for a decade or more before finally toppling over.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[AlinPA]

7. No. They control Congress and the Supreme court, and much of the U.S. They own PA, for example.

[tblue]

9. Yes but never underestimate them

They play to win. Always.

[xfundy]

11. Doesn't matter.

They still own the voting machines.

[B Calm]

12. They have been for some time now.

[Scurrilous]

13. Thanks.

K & R