America's Very Own Monster Raving Looney Party? or Is It Possible to be Sane and Also a Republican?

by Damozel | Maybe.  But evidence that it's becoming less possible every day is pouring in. In their way, they are much, much madder than Britain's actual  Monster Raving Looney Party, which at least doesn't try to pass itself off as sane.  Of the MRLP, Wikipedia explains that it has "a deliberately bizarre manifesto, which contains things that seem to be too impossible or too absurd to implement."  If you add "that have definitively and demonstrably been proved disastrous, misguided, or unworkable," it sounds just like the current incarnation of the GOP. 

For your consideration, Exhibit A (via Benen, since the original article seems to have disappeared):

Four Tennessee state representatives, all Republicans, have signed up to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, aimed at forcing him to prove he is a United States citizen by coughing up his birth certificate.

Let me just say what all the world is now thinking, including their fellow Republicans on the Hill: This is dumber than a box of rocks.

Tennessee Reps. Eric Swafford, Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada and Frank Nicely now have a giant "G" on their foreheads for "Gullible." The four were so willing to drink the craziest flavor of Kool-Aid, they've gotten themselves caught up in a national urban legend that has been thoroughly debunked.

What's next? A resolution honoring the Easter Bunny for doing such a great job with the annual colored egg delivery system? A proposed law asking these four to prove they have a brain?  (Mahablog)

Exhibit B:

Apparently, some yahoo in California is filing another lawsuit challenging Obama's presidential eligibility. Some Republican lawmakers in the Volunteer State, including the GOP caucus chairman of the Tennessee House, are using their positions to not only endorse the baseless case, but also pledging to be plaintiffs in the litigation.

It seems a little early in Obama's presidency to see Republicans become this deranged. I shudder to think how unhinged they'll be in, say, a year.  (Steve Benen)

Exhibit C:

After the November elections, the rightie blogosphere smugly declared that, yeah, maybe they lost, but at least they weren’t going to get crazy like loony liberals and their Bush Derangement Syndrome. So all this weekend the righties were in a state of hysterical meltdown because President Obama chose to return a bust of Winston Churchill on loan from Britain.

This is, of course, not the least bit deranged.  (Mahablog)

Exhibit D:

George Will, who has always presented himself as something of an intellectual among the conservative chattering class, seems to be struggling a bit now that there's a Democratic president. Some of his recent columns have varied between wrong and bizarre.

Last week, for example, Will wrote that if John McCain doesn't approve of a bill, congressional Democrats are guilty of "recklessness." This week, Will rejects the scientific consensus on climate change....[His] points might be compelling, if they were in any way accurate. The problem, of course, is that they're completely wrong....

The Arctic Climate Research Center went so far as to publish a response online yesterday to Will's column [which concluded],..."It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts."  (Benen)

Exhibit E:

The math seems pretty simple. But apparently it's too rigorous for many Republican politicians.

To avoid raising taxes and still balance the books in Sacramento, you'd have to virtually shut down state government.

Some politicians are in denial. Some are demagoguing. Some are just ducking. Scared.

The problem for GOP politicians...is that 52% of Republicans favor eradicating the red ink "mostly through spending cuts."

But the numbers don't add up. The Legislature's two Republican leaders -- Assemblyman Mike Villines of Clovis and Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto -- came to that realization in December as they dug through the budget books. They also knew that even if it were possible to avoid tax hikes, their GOP colleagues didn't have the stomach for the kinds of slashing that would be needed in school, healthcare and prison programs.

"The only alternative now," Villines said Saturday, "is to literally go insolvent and over the cliff. And many of us believe that is irresponsible and giving up our constitutional responsibilities."  (LAT)

Exhibit F, for FAIL:

I'm not sure what other ways he's going to follow in Newt Gingrich's steps. But GOP House whip Eric Cantor seems to have the megalomania and ego front down pat. He's been putting out word over the last few days that he's modeling himself off Newt and now apparently Winston Churchill too.  (TPM)

Exhibit G (via John Cole), their summit in aid of the "quest for an online strategy":

[T[he RNC chairman [says]: "If we haven't done it, let's do it. If we haven't thought of it, think about it. … Don't just think outside the box—I hate that phrase anyway—take it someplace the box hasn't even reached yet."...

Consultant Justin Hart, reading from a sheet of paper with red ink like a top-secret Hollywood script, suggests that "the Republican Party needs what Tom Cruise needed" in the Mission: Impossible films: A "dossier" of experts, a "suite of technology services," and a political SWAT team that can "swoop in" when a campaign is in distress.

John Friesch of Madison, Wis., proposes a video game like the Nintendo classic Paper Boy, only now it's Obama on a bike tossing wads of money. "It's not inherently political," he says, but it makes a point....

During lunch break, Saul Anuzis is holding court near the entrance. "Why do revolutionaries use Kalashnikovs?" he asks. "Because they won't jam. It's not the best gun, but you can throw it in the mud, pick it up, and it still works. This is a revolution."...
"We're Republicans," he says. "We incentivize people!"
 

In other words, " The summit proceeds much like a Quaker meeting, but nerdier." (Slate)

Exhibit H:

As the Economic Stimulus Package hurtled toward an agreement last week, I was taken aback by the last minute derailment strategy the GOP undertook -- something about a salt marsh mouse that Nancy Pelosi was going to give a million billion dollars to, and subsequently celebrate in this year's Folsom Street Fair, because it's the most liberal rodent in the country. "How deliciously old-school!" I thought, adding, "And inane! And ineffective! And embarrassing!"  (Jason Linkins)

Enough.  The examples go on and on.  Even David Frum and Ross Douthat think the GOP has gone off the rails and around the bend and is now spending all its time sticking straws in its hair, counting its fingers, and eating the paste that it used to use to make its tinfoil hats.  Erm, they didn't put it that way, of course.

Benen remarks:

Over the weekend, "Saturday Night Live" had a skit showing Republican officials scheming against President Obama. The GOP, of course, was made to look ridiculous -- mocking the president's substantive answers to questions, arguing over whether Limbaugh or Hannity is the "smartest man in America," and debating whether they should pursue impeachment now or in April. As is often the case, the line between Republican satire and Republican reality is often blurred -- some of the president's GOP detractors really are nuts.

Former Republican Cole muses:

I honestly have never seen a party go so far out of their way to marginalize themselves, and folks who study groupthink are going to look at the last few months as a veritable gold mine. Why the Republicans have decided to, in the middle of numerous crises, ignore the outcome of an election and run headlong against a popular new President into opposition for opposition sake is beyond me....

Rather than try to build trust,...rather than sit back and take a breather, compose themselves, and plot a way forward for both the country and the GOP, the Washington Republicans seem intent on committing seppuku. Instead of rebranding themselves and putting forth an alternate vision, they seem to think that unified obstructionism based on the hope that things get worse is the real way forward for them. And they don’t realize that everyone sees through it.

Memeorandum has more.

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