As a topic, our staff has discussed today's subject matter many times over the last twenty-plus years. In fact, we've been warning our Republican friends of these days since even before the first edition of this publication. Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, our warnings went unheeded.
What we're talking about is the highly un-civil war going on inside the Republican Party.
While it's fairly obvious that the GOP's establishment wing is currently ganging up and attempting to stomp Newt Gingrich flat, the Republican's internal war isn't just happening on the Presidential level.
Tea Party extremists like Congressman Allen West are also being targeted by the Republican Party establishment, who are attempting to redistrict West right out of his Congressional seat. Even right-wing media isn't off limits. Well-known conservative rumor generator Matt Drudge, and even Fox News, are being targeted by certain factions of the Republican Party that both Drudge and Fox have pandered to for years.
Of course, it doesn't help the cause of Republicans and conservatives when those they consider leaders - like Speaker John Boehner - continue insisting on legislative kamikaze maneuvers like Boehner appears intent on doing yet again with the Keystone pipeline.
The intra-party warfare has even shaken longtime GOP stalwarts like anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist into admitting out loud things that were formerly only spoken of in hushed tones in back rooms. Norquist's latest failure is in admitting that Congressional Republicans fully intend to find a way to try and impeach President Obama during Obama's second term if they don't get their way. That would be reminiscent of the way they targeted Bill Clinton after the GOP's last major implosion - which, as it turns out, happened under Newt Gingrich in the late 1990s.
Speaking of Newt, even though the polling numbers don't lately seem to be in his favor – Nate Silver's aggregation of polls says Mitt Romney has an almost ninety percent chance of winning Florida – Newt is insisting he will will press on, and continue his campaign for several more months. Thanks to the Citizens United ruling and the millions of dollars in support from multi-billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, Gingrich could easily do just that, continuing his campaign long after the chance for him to legitimately win the nomination has passed.
There are those sounding the alarm in Republican circles - that the GOP's highly uncivil war will hurt them in the general election on the Presidential level and beyond. It also looks to weaken them down the ballot across America, and in political power centers for years to come. Unsurprisingly, there are few on the right willing to listen to that alarm.
The Republican Party elite have been dreading this battle for years, attempting to keep the Wall Street class together with the evangelical right, the libertarians, and even the old-fashioned centrist GOP members. Maintaining this political Frankenstein became impossible, however, when the GOP leadership allowed the extremists in the Tea Party to take the reins.
The only reason conservative leaders stirred up the extremist elements that became the Tea Party was because they believed the Tea Baggers would get the Republican Party the attention they have long lusted after.
To that extent, they've succeeded beyond even their own wildest dreams.
However, it's exactly the wrong kind of attention a party looking to gain more political power would want to receive.
Somehow, we can't really feel sorry for the political death dance they're going through.
It's not like we didn't warn them.
