Wing-Nut Death Wish

The first rule of political PR is that when you’re in a hole, stop digging. Somebody ought to tell Mike Huckabee, Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich to ditch their shovels before they bury the GOP. Mike Huckebee recently said the GOP would become as irrelevant as the Whigs without the social conservatives and the pro-life, family people. Surely he jests. What he should have said is with the social conservatives, the GOP has already become as irrelevant as the Whigs in the Northeast and Pacific West. And don’t get me started about Dick Cheney. On Sunday, the former vice president dismissed Colin Powell’s GOP credentials and anointed Rush Limbaugh as his model Republican. You have to give Dick Cheney credit for sticking to his principles, but you’re just about as likely to find WMD’s in Iraq as independent voters who like the right-wing talk show host. And then there’s Newt Gingrich. If Newt and his buddies, Dick and Rush, continue to be the most visible spokesman for the Republicans, Democrats can look forward to a long period of national political dominance. The idea that the GOP is dead is ridiculous. But it is headed in the wrong direction, and I’m not going to stand in their way. Maybe some sharp Republican operative will stop them from sealing their own coffins. But maybe not. The party seems to have a death wish. Brad is the president of Bannon Communications Research, a political consulting and polling firm for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups.