Back in the 80's and 90's, they catered to the evangelicals and other assorted big-hair preacher types. They became the laughingstock of the nation when said preachers turned out to be bigots, pedophiles, and homosexual predators.

Now, in order to keep their chins above water, they have grasped onto the birthers, the teabaggers, and assorted racists. This time, the crazy people have decided to take over the party. After coddling the crazies, the hapless publicans in NY found that the crazies wanted to run the show. They threw out the republican candidate and were promptly trounced at the polls.

But these people do not learn quickly. You can bet your bumper sticker that more of these crazies will put themselves on ballots in 2010--either as independents or republicans. And they will win some primaries, thereby driving out actual publican candidates. Either way, the democrats win again.

The publicans have screwed themselves sooooooooo bad.

But what else could they do? They couldn't win without the crazy bastards, and they sure as hell can't win with them.

Well, maybe you should wait until this time next year to declare the Republicans self-screwed.

And, can it really be said that the Republicans have a monopoly on crazy bastards? Can the crats really afford to piss off the Daily Kossacks, the Gay Lobby, radical enviros, the Organic Left, or the wacky academic lefties?

Obama and the crat leadership are careful to keep their own nut-bags in the closet around election time, but cannot afford to alienate any of the fringe Left because of the clout those groups have within the crat party apparatus.

And, can it really be said that the Republicans have a monopoly on crazy bastards? Can the crats really afford to piss off the Daily Kossacks, the Gay Lobby, radical enviros, the Organic Left, or the wacky academic lefties?

While the Left certainly has its radicals, you should pause for a moment and consider this: the Gay Lobby includes many thousands of rightwingers in the Log Cabin Republicans, so that's not exactly a Far Left movement. It's only Far Left to the religious social conservative wackjobs on the right.

Secondly, the Democratic Party has never fought very hard to radicalize their party. Our looneys tend to remain firmly on the margins. The hardcore radicals in Earth First! don't get much attention from mainstream Democrats, and they don't have enough sway to pull the party further to the Left.

As for academics, well, most folks have come to recognize that conservatives have more or less given up on being relevant to the educated class. As other pundits have pointed out, doctors, lawyers, scientists, university intellectuals...a wide majority of these occupations identify themselves as Democrats. We can't help it if there aren't many rightwing academics, but then again, even the ones who do exist are rarely taken seriously by the mainstream GOP. Milton Friedmann is often cited by righties, but at the end of the day, libertarianism has next to no place of significance in the GOP. Nobody takes Ron Paul seriously. (I probably know more liberals who appreciate Paul for his views on foreign policy than I do Republicans who think he's a serious influence over the party).

The point: Democrats have their wackos, but our wackos are not trying to take over the party. The GOP is selling its soul to the lunatic fringe. Good luck with that.