It strikes me as amusing, that a party, whose convention highlight was the hate speech of a turn-coat Democratic Georgian Senator, should be falling apart from a division between the old and new wings. When a father's associates, almost to a man, have been spurned by this administration; there is big trouble on the horizon(or at least one can hope). The incessant wrapping one's self in the flag speeches of the president and Cheney, should soon be exposed as a party adrift in it's own ignorance. While they have time and again fooled the American public that their every move is the result of 9/11. Are we that stupid. Are they? What if 20,000 souls were snuffed-out at ground zero, whould this party have enough human fuel to rule this country ad infinitum?

Sidney Blumenthal has explicated the "Republican Advantage!" That Republican moderates, who used to "bail-out" the cronies, were left too far out in left field to save the day. What kind of politics is this? I might like to call it professional Republican hypocracy. However, beyond the historical political stratagies, and beyond the cronyisms, there is one blantant omission in Blumenthal's treaties: George W Bush mislead our country into a war that has bankrupt the economy, costs thousands of lives, and continues to threaten the stability of the regeon and the world. It's one thing to declare a "War on Terrorism" and quite something else to win it.

Now exposed, what lengths will the Bush team take to coverup, mislead, confuse, and who knows what else? Things could get worse!

just thanks for reminding us of the human issues behind the actions and grand movment we observers see.

charles

rthrust@gmail.com

Sidney Blumenthal's statement that "Bush has so thoroughly destroyed the Republican establishment that no one, not even his dad, can rescue him now" sounds like wishful thinking to me. I wonder if he was also one of those in early 2004 who was confident that there was no way that W. would or could win reelection.

Watch out for that echo-chamber effect, Sidney!

It is truly a sad state of affairs when George H.W. Bush looks decent relative to George W.Bush. I think it's safe to say, that the Bush Family has never and will never provide the nation with the quality of leadership it, and the world, deserves.

While the GOP may be sinking it will keep winning because a.) Dems have also lost thier way and are even more ruderless b.) the GOP still has FOX news and conservative/religious radio/media c.) Both parties have given the country over to mega cooperations that favor the GOP.

The best example is that the most liberal states (New York and California) keep electing Republicans. This should tell us something.

Carl Granados

Amazingly, the disentegration of the Republican establishment has come completely from within. No outside pressure or maneuvering by the Democrats required.

For the last five years we've listen to the leftist lament over the splintered and defeated Democratic party. Powerless to the stop the conservative juggernaut, Democrats sat on their hands as the right orchestrated the march to war. Unable to conceive of their own marketing genius, they lost their voice, unable to contribute to the definitons of patriotism, family, torture, "death taxes," "activist judges," "up or down vote", and the amorphous "right to privacy."

And yet, much like the Democrats before them, the satiated Republicans, bloated from swallowed arrogance, have imploded all by themselves. Free-thinking conservatives, subjugated to the religious right, lie awake at night, knowing in their heart of hearts that freedom for Iraqi citizens wasn't the real goal, that "socially liberal, but fiscally conservative" is more Clinton than Bush, mand that maybe, just maybe, it's time for a change.

I agree with the previous poster. The Bushes were never good people, the previous ones just hid their ulterior motives better. Poppy is a member of the Carlyle Group, let's not forget. As has been mentioned already, Prescott helped fund the Nazis. All W. has done is take the corruption and incompetence of past Bushes and put in a shiny Christian Fundamentalist package.

We liberals always seem to look fondly on the conservatives of the past simply because the ones of today are so much worse. But the conservatives of the past were still bad. Goldwater was reckless, if principled. Nixon was corrupt, Reagan's policies were heartless, H.W. Bush was incompetent.

Yes, Bush has taken all of those bad qualities and put them into one "Perfect Storm of Awful", but let's not give conservatives of the past laurels they do not deserve.

Mr. Blumenthal and editors,

Big words, yadda, yadda. There are decent thoughts, but they are hidden in a poor writing style. You sound like a freshman with a thesaurus.

A partial list of vain words and phrases from page 2.

foreign policy mandarin

penetrated his avuncular image

highhanded treatment

all but eviscerated

well-known bildungsroman

supply-side nostrums

superannuated retinue

This is quote a slide for an article that started with a complex thought expressed with simple words. �The Republican-establishment wise men whose words were once quiet commands are shouting unheeded warnings.�

It sounds like you stayed up too late to finish, ending with more emotion than clear thinking and writing. It�s only a few problems that a sharp editor could help you resolve.

Tobi

While I believe that Sidney Blumenthal is an excellent commentator, it is incredulous to me that he thinks that Prescott Bush was a moderate Republican, when it's been established over and over that that man financed the Nazis. I also find it incredulous that he thinks that the moderate, principled Republicans are now gone from the party due to Bush's recklessness. The Republicans have been purging moderates themselves from their own party for the past three decades. And without Junior's help they've been pursuing policies that are unintelligent, illogical, arrogant and harmful.

The Republicans have destroyed themselves through their own hubris, and I believe that even if they had found someone who gave all appearances of being intelligent and responsible for the highest office in the nation, most citizens of this country would still have seen the worthlessness of Republican policies. With Junior in charge, we're seeing it sooner when we still might have a chance to avert the disasters that await us if this man and his cabal remain in power and their policies take full, undiluted effect.