Schadenfreude

With some folks uncomfortable by how testy the Clinton-Obama contest has gotten, it's worth reveling in the collapse of the modern conservative coalition. They are freaking out!

After Iowa, they were freaking out over Huckabee ("He's a crazy Bible-thumper-- good-- but he also talks about the poor-- bad!"). Now, with Huckabee running on fumes, they are freaking out over John McCain, the man who sold his soul to them in 2004. Sorry John, it wasn't good enough for this crowd. Apparently, formerly to-the-left-of-Bill-Clinton Mitt Romney is a-okay, though.

Andrew Sullivan looks at this anti-McCain movement (some choice National Review posts from earlier this week- here and here). Rush Limbaugh, for instance, says-

"Now the people on the McCain bandwagon are telling those of us who aren't on the McCain bandwagon, to shut up. Just be quiet. We are supposedly damaging the Republican Party.

We are supposedly damaging the conservative movement. We should just shut up. Just sit by and watch all this stuff and let it happen and just be quiet. What is the point?"

And Rush knows all about shutting up and letting things happen. After the 2006 midterm elections, he admitted to his audience that he'd been a liar and a propagandist. He said at the time, "I feel liberated, and I'm just going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried." That didn't last long, though. Look out McCain, Rush is fired up and ready to go!



Yes, John McCain may be the most pro-war candidate this year, and has totally capitulated on torture and taxes and everything else, but he is still evil to them. This by a conservative cartoonist shows how insane their McCain hatred is-



Campaign finance reform? Stem cell research? Pragmatic on Social Security and the pharmaceutical industry? Concerned about the climate? Compassionate toward immigrants? THAT MONSTER!

Personally, I hope primary season never ends. Because when it does, all these concerned conservatives-- whatever that even means now-- will fall right back in line in their quest to save the White House from the liberal fascists. And then we get the less fun kind of crazy.

[Related: Dead party walking-- The GOP candidates are a feeble group of Bush imitators tied to his disastrous war. And unless the surge turns into a miracle, even front-runner McCain won't beat a Democrat. (Salon)]