They're For Life Except When They're Against It: Observations On Today's GOP

I am still having a difficult time getting my head around this, but it appears that today's Republican Party is adamantly against abortions for the unborn, adamantly against health care for the newborn if their mother chooses not to have an abortion and lacks insurance, adamantly for letting an adult with serious health issues die if they lack insurance, and adamantly for executing people even under the flimsiest of evidence.

Have I got that right? Yes I do, but the question arises as to how the GOP got itself tied in such seemingly contradictory knots.

That's easy: Obeisance to ideological purity no matter the circumstances, an unwillingness to listen to the views of others and a win-at-all-costs mentality as the GOP continues to devolve from a traditional political party to something resembling a religion.

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When Bill Kristol is sour on the Republican presidential field in its entirety you know the 2012 election is still Barack Obama's to lose.

His take on Rick Perry in the Florida debate last week:

"[N]o front-runner in a presidential field has ever, we imagine, had as weak a showing as Rick Perry. It was close to a disqualifying two hours for him."

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A grifter is a con artist, hustler, bunko practitioner, swindler, flim flamer and bamboozler.

Sarah Palin is without a doubt the very definition of a grifter as a new SarahPAC fundraising letter makes clear in asking supporters to "send your best, one-time gift to . . . show her that we support her if she decided to run."

Well, I keep going back on forth on whether the Quitta From Wasilla will run, but it is clear that Palin has become an expert at milking virtually everything she does for cold cash. And if she decides not to run or makes a brief primary appearance before for bowing to the inevitable you can be sure SarahPAC will return the unspent money. (Cough, cough.)

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Politifact's latest ratings on the truth of statements by Republican presidential candidates are out and show . . . this is simply shocking, that virtually every time Michelle Bachmann opens her mouth she is lying.

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I have written over and over that the GOP's disdain for minorities will prove to be an electoral disaster in the long run because, like it or not, blacks and other people of color are the fastest growing block of new voters. Then there are gays.

Poll after poll shows that a growing number of voters accept homosexuality and a goodly number support gay marriage, both being anathema to virtually every Republican politician of consequence.

Not even so-called "moderate" Jon Huntsman supported the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Not "sensible" Rick Perry. Not "libertarian" Ron Paul. And not one of them except Huntsman came to the defense of a gay soldier serving in Iraq when he was booed by the more repulsive people in the audience at the Florida debate.

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Finally, Charles P. Pierce at Esquire's political blog:

"It is not possible to run for president as a Republican these days without at some level having to become a parody of yourself. Running within a radicalized, self-contained universe with its own private, physical laws and its own private history, with its own vocabulary and syntax that has to be learned from scratch almost daily, requires an ongoing manic re-invention that can do nothing but make the candidate look ridiculous to people outside that universe.

"This is how we get Mitt Romney, with his $290 million, telling an audience that he doesn’t 'try to define who is rich and who is not rich.' Here’s a hint, Mitt. You’re rich. You’re filthy, stinking rich. You reek of money. You belong on a card in a Monopoly set, okay? Buy a damn monocle already . . . "