Is the Republican Party finally imploding?

Things are just going downhill so fast for the batch of thugs that currently run the Republican party, it is enough to make your head spin. I can’t even begin to keep up with all the developments.

There’s George “Macaca” Allen, of course, who went ballistic when it was revealed that his mother has Jewish roots. First came the obligatory denial, then the acceptance when confronted with the fact, although that acceptance came with several caveats. He was unaware of her origins until just last year, and that she still makes great pork chops. I don’t suppose he ever asked any questions about why his grandfather was in a German concentration camp during WWII? He still wears his cowboy boots and hat to engender his supposed bonds with the right wing voters of Virginia. But things aren’t really going too well for him, since he can’t get anyone to talk about anything else these days. Actually, probably the best thing he has going for him now is Jim Webb comes with a bit of a tarnished reputation as well for his statements about women in military academies. At least he had the good sense to say his views on the subject seventeen years ago were juvenile. It remains to be seen if he is really repentant or not.

But the bigger distraction for everyone these days is the revelations about Mark Foley. Another little sordid barnacle on the underbelly of the Rethug party is revealed. Of course, this all does serve as a distraction from the Big Debacle that is Iraq and from our foreign policy in general that is in tatters. But it is a sorry state of affairs when the only positive thing that can be said is that when a sordid affair distracts everyone’s attention from the Big Debacle.

Where will it all end and how much of a blind eye can be turned by the Republican’s core supporters? Foley and Allen are just the latest in the long line of black eyes for the right. Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Bob Ney, “Dutch” Cunningham, the New Hampshire phone jamming scheme, Haliburton and all the rest of those “private contractors” who are getting rich without delivering the goods, the continuing reprehensible lack of response to Katrina, not to mention the recent refutation of Habeas Corpus and the acceptance of torturing anyone designated as an enemy of the state without trail, all of these show how absolutely morally bankrupt our current leadership actually is.

I have great hopes but am also very fearful about the upcoming mid-term elections. I would like to believe all the reports that seem to be pointing toward a Democratic landslide. However, given what has happened in the past, I am very concerned that the elections will do nothing but maintain the status quo. The Democrats will pick up some seats in both the House and the Senate, but will lose some that they were expecting to win. There will be renewed suspicions regarding the accuracy of Diebold voting machines. There will be very incidents that look very much like efforts by the Right to suppress the votes from groups that tend to vote Democratic. People will cry “foul”, and will be sneered at as sore losers and labeled as conspiracy theorists. This will, of course, be taken by the Right as validation that they style of governance is what the country wants.

I personally cannot believe that the current leadership of this country will go unpunished for the complete mess they have gotten this country into. However, I also believe that they will find someway to escape any punishment for their misdeeds. I am very worried indeed.