Plague Infects Florida Republicans

ROMEO: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

MERCUTIO: [Dying] No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough,'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
-- Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. 1

The internecine war within the Florida Republican Party keeps spreading its ruin like the plague. A political plague. As Chris Weigant wrote yesterday, it looks very much as if a "fratricidal battle" has begun.

The House of Marco Rubio two months ago accused the House of Crist of being source for leaks about Rubio's lavish charge-card spending. Now, the investigation into the accounts of Rubio and other top Florida Republicans looks as if it is infecting those who live in the House of Charlie Crist, as well.

We're with Mercutio: a plague on all their houses.

Bill McCollum Wins Endorsement

As long as we're visiting the psych ward known as the Florida Republican Party, we may as well record the report of journalist Joy Reid who today says that G.O.P. gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum has won the endorsement of "Stormfront... the white supremacist crowd." Stormfront.org is headed by the former Grand Dragon of the KKK, Don Black of West Palm Beach. We didn't bother to follow Reid's link. According to her, however, Black and his fellow mental cases applaud "McCollum’s opposition to the MLK holiday."

Electoral Shock Therapy

Not long ago we mentioned a relative who was a lifelong Republican and a highly successful office holder until, as he says, "the party left me." He's not alone:

Life-long Republican Chris Currey has a thoughtful piece over at David Frum's place, explaining his belief that his party has lost its mind. Currey doesn't exactly break new ground -- his fears and concerns will no doubt seem familiar to most who keep up with current events -- but his piece is worth reading anyway.

Steve Benen is right. Republican businessman Currey's article is thoughtful and compelling. Bennen also is right when he says that when a political party goes bat-shit crazy, as the neo-Republican Party so clearly has, "the only way to bring it to its senses is for it to suffer electoral humiliation."

The GOP went sharply to the right after the 2004 elections, and it lost in 2006. Republicans then went even further to the right, and lost in 2008. In response, they went even further still to the right.

If 2010 is an electoral bonanza for the GOP, the party will assume that the way a party wins elections is to have its members become stark raving mad. If 2010 is another humiliating failure for the GOP, the party may be more inclined to identify their most ridiculous and dangerous habits, and consider where they went wrong.

Republicans appear to have lost Chris Currey, and with good reason. But unless Currey has a lot of like-minded friends voting in November, the party won't bother to try and get him back.

We've said it before. It needs repeating: in a two-party democratic system, both parties need each other to stay honest and responsive to the needs of the nation as a whole. Restoring the Republican Party's sanity is as important to the Democratic Party as it is to the nation's political health.

If it takes electoral shock therapy, so be it.