Believe it or not, there is nothing I love more than good news. And the NY Times had an article last Friday that made me joyous. In case you've been living under a rock lately, the Republicans have been having a rough go of it these last few months right before the elections, including a sexual harrasment scandal involving a Representative and a 16-year old Congressional page, not to mention the unpopular bungle in Iraq, the failures of the administration to effectively deal with Iran and North Korea, the unpopularity of the Bush administration as a whole, etc., etc., etc. Anyway, all signs point to an overwhelming defeat for the Repubs in next months midterm elections at the hands of the Democrats, and, from the looks of the article, the Repubs are wasting no time holding themselves accountable. And by "themselves", I mean, "anyone in the party who is not themselves specifically."

The Republican Party has about a half-dozen factions that it has to keep happy. You've got your Jesus Freaks, of course (who, apparently, former Majority Leader Dick Armey called a "gang of thugs" in a recent interview), as well as the classic economic conservatives (read: old, rich men who don't want to pay their taxes), the neocons (ex-liberals gone insane who are primarily responsible for the bungle in Iraq), the Libertarians (who are leaving the Repubs in increasing numbers because of the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration, as well as its increasingly uncomfortable ties to the Religious Right), and a slew of single issue voters, including gun nuts, out and out racists, etc. And now, in the face of electoral disaster, they are turning the blame on each other. The Repubs are in out-and-out Civil War mode and, get this, the elections haven't even happened yet. I almost hate to say it, but it appears as though the Democrats' "give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves" strategy appears to be working, because on the surface it looks as though the Repubs have been doing all of this damage to themselves. But there has been a quiet movement across the country ever since Howard Dean took over as chair of the DNC to get strong candidates across the country in races that pundits thought the Dems had no chance at winning, and the success stories, so far, have been inspiring. We'll see who the most successful were after the elections, but I believe that, in the end, the Good Doctor will have had as much influence in the Democrats taking the House AND the Senate as the Republicans have had.