Huntsman criticizes GOP, cozies up to Bachmann, abandons last shred of dignity

By Michael J.W. Stickings

QUESTION OF THE DAY

If a Republican presidential candidate who's way too rational and sane for his own party and who's way back in the polls to the point where most people don't even know who he is criticizes his party and its extremist mainstream even on national television, does it matter?

Poor Jon Huntsman. So formidable in so many ways -- and yet... so lost.

So much so, in fact, that he now says he'd actually consider running as Bachmann's veep? Has he lost his mind? Or, rather, has he lost all his dignity?

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Question of the Day

By Michael J.W. Stickings

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there are now over 1,000 active hate groups in the U.S.

-- How many of them support the Republican Party, lean Republican, or are actively involved with the GOP?

As Mark Potok, the editor of the SPLC's Intelligence Report, explains:

Far-right extremists remain highly energized, even as politicians across the country co-opt many of the radical ideas and issues that are important to them. This success in having their voices heard in the political arena, where they have long occupied the fringe of conservative thought, might eventually take the wind out of their sails, but so far we're not seeing any sign of that.

Hardly surprising, what with the GOP moving further and further to the right and turning the radical right into its new mainstream as it descends deeper and deeper into extremism and madness.