The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

McLaughlin this morning said that the Republicans are in disarray and are displaying a dysfunctional face to the nation. He sites John Bolton not being approved to the UN post haste, Tom DeLay's improprieties, Bill Frist threatening the nuclear option, and the fight over Social Security, among other recent events that have smudged the faces of Republicans.

I disagree. They have power, and they are trying to abuse it. If the Democrats were in power I would suspect that they would do the same thing. They are pushing the line of what they would be able to do without complete control, so their ideal agenda is coming through. The Democrats are obviously making a stink about it since they're losing ground.

There is obviously a chance that all this could backfire and some Republicans may realize one day that they are not as conservative as they thought they were, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I hope it does, but I don't see it.

On Chris Matthews they took an interesting poll among their contributors. They feel pretty strongly that Bill Frist would win a 2008 nomination over John McCain for the presidency. The follow up question indicated that they overwhelmingly felt that McCain would have a much better chance to beat Hillary Clinton, the perceived front runner for the Democrats.

All this begs the question: are the Republicans painting themselves into a corner? They are isolating their middle ground at a time when the Democrats are going out of their ways to embrace their more moderate members.

I suppose it's just a function of living in NYC Metro my entire life, but I'm extremely surprised at the success of the new religious Republicans. They've managed to leverage one issue to their complete advantage. Especially considering the tendency for most people I know to go out of their ways to separate church and state.