Bottom line: a reinvented Republican is still a Republican at heart...assuming they even have hearts. Even assuming they want to change, their core values are still suspect and their instincts are still vile and divisive. The tendency is to enjoy the schadenfreude as they twist slowly in the wind.

The Republican Party has a choice: drop the preachy and moralistic, Religious Right-based approach to politics and embrace the pragmatic middle-of-the-road way..or, remain ideologically isolated and continue to lose voters, influence and elections.

When Ronald Reagan embraced in 1980, for cold and calculated political reasons, the Moral Majority of Jerry Falwell, he made a deal with the Devil. The party lurched hard right because of it. That deal, imho, is the proximate and root cause of the defeat and debacle we all witnessed on Election Day.

So...whither the direction of the Republican Party? Will they opt to go back to being the Party of Lincoln or will they continue to be the Party of George Lincoln Rockwell instead? It's choice time, baby, and, given their history, I'm betting they lurch even farther to the right. Right down the toilet...

With a great amount of schadenfreude, I watched the "Great Republican Gasbag Airship" crash and burn last Tuesday, taking its captain and crew down with it. A few of their passengers, however, escaped to fly another day. The only question is what kind of craft will they board for future flights?

Will that craft have only a right wing, therefore causing it to corkscrew in for yet another crash? Or, will some sane Republican architect realize that the Republican party needs balance, i.e., two wings, to fly forward? That is the most interesting question.

For an answer, watch the Republican Party's efforts over the next few months closely; listen to the competing philosophies to get a clue, as well. Should the Southern base of the party win out, expect an even harder turn to the right with a dwindling number of Republicans aboard; should sane Republicans prevail (I know; "sane republicans" is oxymoronic!), then, the party has a chance to re-grow.

However, given the enormous grasp the Religious Right, et al, have on the Republican Party, expect them to, a la Charlton Heston at the N.R.A. convention, give control over to moderates "when they pry it from their cold, dead hands."

That day is fast approaching, imho, and my sense of schadenfreude waxes anew.

After eight lo-o-ong years of illegality, arrogance, hubris and general snottiness, the day of reckoning looks to be at hand for the Repooplicans. From John McCain on down, admittedly a very short journey, the casualties could be large and the changes massive.

Plus, as with any full "John", the contents contained therin need to be flushed...stat! Good riddance to the lot of them...McCain, Palin, Bachmann and Dole especially!

John McCain simply proved, in this campaign, that he is a calculating, cold and duplicitous pol instead of a maverick. Had he remained in the 2000Campaign mode, he would probably be competitive in this election. His failure to adhere to principle, embracing expediency instead, showed the true lack of character of the man. Pandering to the basest of the base, i.e. the Religious Right, et al, cost him dearly in the larger context of voters.

Now the battle commences for the heart of the Republican party; as for its soul...it sold that to the merchants of malice named Fallwell, Dobson and Rove.

Sad. Pathetic. Like watching a bad traffic accident unfold in a slo-mo video, John McCain imploded completely with but a faint murmur before a national audience last night. However, it was a fitting end to someone so bereft of ideas, character and vision. Ker-plunk!

Barack Obama, otoh, continued to look Presidential, with his cool and unruffled demeanor and thoughtful, in-depth answers. He has the chops to be a President of whom we can all be proud.

Game, set, match to Barack Obama. Now, let's simply give the lovely parting gift to John McCain as he slips quietly and silently onto the trash-heap of failed ideas, vindictive manner and scurrilous commentary.

Sarah Palin gets to go back to Alaska to face the electorate who, suddenly, know a lot more about "Miss Moose Queen" than they did previously. Good luck there, Miss Moose Queen.

is that there are people who actually buy into the Karl Rove/Steve Schmidt-bastardization of things. There are actually real voters out there who are so stoked on half-truths, bald-faced lies, misinformation and outright lies from Messrs. Rove, Schmidt, et al, that they flail about, mouth afroth, spouting venom and ignorance and who are all too ready to share this "data" about Senator Obama and the "liberal" Democrats with their friends!

I fault both John McCain AND his minions who do the Devil's deeds with such abandon and glee. May they all come to the ends they so justly deserve.

For the Republicans, the turn to the overtly dark side in their advertising against Barack Obama and the Democrats was an all-too-easy one: all it required was a gentle direction change from far right to hard far right. The scurrilous attacks on Democrats in general and Senator Obama specifically are so beyond the pale that only the most mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging and reddest-of-necks among them continue to be the true believers.

Of the many people in North Carolina with whom I'm friends, even the most conservative among them is either going to vote Democratic this election or is leaning heavily Democratic. For a few of them, the shift is seismic, given their years of blind obeisance to the Republican Party. Most of them not only do not believe the Republican drek-fest, they are ashamed of it.

After all the Republican Party's politics of destruction, distraction and desperation, perhaps a good ol' butt-whuppin' of the nasty right-wing will come about this election; God knows, they've surely earned at least one!