But Republicans do not believe in first Amendment Rights... at least insofar as they are exercised to publish anything that does not reflect official Republican policy.

If you want to see what "Freedom of Speech" means to a Republican, just spend an evening watching FoxNews, or reading WorldNetDaily online, pick up a copy of NewsMax. That is the kind of speech that Republicans believe should be protected.

Everything else is optional.

Jerry Falwell, during the Reagan years, swore he was going to get out of the political arena... until George w. Bush came calling.

Religious Fundametalists always "swear off" politics every time they might face accountability for the politicians they put in office; such as George W. Bush and Tom DeLay.

The Fundamentalists will "take themselves" out of politics so they will not have to answer embarrasing questions about the results of the man (George W. Bush) they unconditionally supported (and continue to support) for President.

I guarantee they will come running back in 2012 when the Republican party comes calling again and they smell a chance of power in Sarah palin.

You have obviously missed the point. Fundamentalist Christianity has nothing to do with how its adherents live their own lives. It is all about the rules tey wish to impose on everyone else.

Regrding the author's comment:

"Beinart has it exactly right. Which is why I reiterate what I said last week: Run, Sarah, Run. Only she and her ideologically blinded supporters, like Japanese soldiers found in uniform on a deserted island years after the war is over, seem not to know it."

That, to me, sounds awfully premature. As far as I can tell the entire Republican leadership still considers Ms Palin to be the future of the Republican Party. This will, I believe, be confirmed when she resigns as Governor of Alaska (just minutes ahead of an ethics censure for her part in Troopergate) to take a job as commentator at Foxnews. The Republicans always take care of their loyal own and she will be kept in the public eye in order to be visible and available for 2012.

The Republican leadership will make no decision that her time is in any way past.

Absentee ballots are not marked with the voter's name (the envelope is), and they are destroyed after the election is certified. Other than those two impediments, I would have had the ballot framed.

After all, it's not as if he can diminish his standing in the US any lower than it currently is.

If Karl Rove were still runnig the White House she would have been summarilly fired for that comment.

Conservatives have an extreme messianic complex. They started with Ronald Reagan, shifted to George W. Bush and have now settled on Sarah Palin.

When Conservatives identify a new messiah, (s)he is immediately exempt from all disagreement and even scrutiny. The new messiah is to be obeyed without question, defended at all costs and owed unquestioned loyalty.

We saw this when "Loyal Bushies" testified before Congress:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003656.php

"I took an oath the president, and I take that oath very seriously," Sara Taylor said in answer to a question early in the hearing.

And right after a break, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked her if she was sure about that. "Did you mean, perhaps, you took an oath to the Constitution?" Leahy asked. It was a telling exchange.

Conservatives put their loyalty to the person, above country and conscience. Now Sarah Palin is the next savior. She was selected for John McCain by the Religious Right (likely by James Dobsonpersonally), and must be supported at all costs. She will be the Republican nominee for President in 2012, or the Religious Right will stay home.

So, buying $190,000 (at least) worth of personal items is apparently a violation of federal election laws.

Any bets on whether or not the Bush Justice Department is going to enforce those laws?

Yeah, right!

Regarding the author's comment, "But the fact that these clowns used "country first" as a slogan while prioritizing the votes of extremists over the good of the American people ought to haunt them for the rest of their lives."

That would only happen if they had a conscience. An item that has obviously been surgically removed from all those involved in the Republican national campaigns for the past two decades.

Fox is paying a $1/4 fine for permitting this word to come across from Bono. Will MSNBC be getting fined?

Then again, Bono is known to be Liberal and Mr. Scarborough is Conservative. So the standard may be different.

It is not the fact that Joe dropped the F word on daytime TV: Most kids have heard the word before.

However I am waiting to see what the Family Research Council does. They are, after all, the guardians of public morality and certainly were in high dudgeon when Ms Jackson flopped her boob on TV.

Will they be as outraged when a Conservative does it?

My guess is that Mr Scarborough will get the automatic Conservative Free pass that the FRC gives to all the Party Loyalists.

Re: "Hoisted means blown up, exploded, as in by a petard, or an explosive mainly used to blow down doors. A petard can't 'hoist' anything."

Actually the phrase had multiple meanings. In Shakespearian England, in addition to referring to being blown up by the same explosive device used in sieges to blow down barricaded doors (a common occurrence), it was also a colloquial term for breaking wind. The Bard of Avon was not immune to using double entendres in his plays, and Hamlet was no exception.

Re: "Now some trolls can say I have been "hoisted by my own petard" and call me some names."

But under WHICH meaning of the term?

So now "Dropping the 'F' Bomb" takes on an entirely new set of meenings!

"Lord what fools these mortals be!"