Republicans in Increasing Disarray; Bush and his Top Honchos Desperate

These are strange times and I have no desire to gloat over the disarray of Republicans. In some ways, the most dangerous people in the world are those who realize blunders have been made but who aren't particularly anxious to admit it. This is by no means something that is unique to Republicans. In fact, nearly every week, I come across an article about the Middle East where one of the many ethnic or religious groups is unable to admit and accept responsibility for their own blunders or mistakes.

Over the last few decades, liberal Democrats, of course, have made their own mistakes and have been stubborn at times about admitting it. But a different kind of mistake is rubbing people's faces in their blunders. It is never a smart move, particularly when we need to focus on the future. But it's a difficult line to walk. Our country faces serious problems on many fronts and it's important to properly identify those problems, to start working on solutions and to isolate wealthy interests whose greed and stupidity are endangering our future. But it's also important to somehow restore civility and some level of respect among people who don't agree about a wide range of issues, even if some of those people are deliberately trying to be divisive.

Every election for the last few years has been important and things have not gone well for the health of the nation. I would like to believe that Americans finally understand what's happening and that there are seriously damaging consequences if we continue to let Bush do whatever he wants without any accountability.

In the following article, in Insight Magazine, the word liberal seems to be defined as anything that doesn't agree with the dominant right wing philosophy of Washington at the moment (well the magazine is conservative); be that as it may, here's some excerpts (hit tip to Huffington Post) about the growing disarray among Republicans:

President Bush has been trying to maintain a united Republican Party amid flagging conservative support and a split with the GOP’s liberal wing.

The two wings are so far apart that party strategists no longer envision a united front for the November congressional elections. The strategists said many of the liberals, already alienated from the White House, have been campaigning as opponents of the president in an effort to win re-election as part of an expected Democratic Party sweep of Congress.

''I think we've lost our way,'' said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and possible presidential contender in 2008. ''And I think the Republicans are going to be in some jeopardy for that and will be held accountable.''

The key leaders of the GOP’s liberal wing have been Mr. Hagel and Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut...

(snip)

Mr. Shays, who concluded a visit to Iraq last week, has broken with Mr. Bush and supports a Pentagon withdrawal timetable from Iraq.

He has blamed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the Iraq war amid plans to hold three House hearings titled "Iraq: Democracy or Civil War."

(snip)

"If the Republican Party is no longer the party of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, limited government, or fiscal restraint, then what is it?" asked the Cato Institute....

The article talks about a liberal wing of the Republican party. To be honest, I didn't know there were enough moderates and traditional conservatives left to make up a 'liberal' wing.

After years of people like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson and a host of right wing commentators, I'm not sure how many Americans recognize just how much our politics have been drifting to the right, but there have been consequences to that drift and the main consequence has been the rise of powerful people so ideological and so incompetent that they have left the United States weaker than it was six years ago.