The consequences of moving the goalposts:

"As dark as this picture is for congressional candidates, there's bright news at the state level. Somehow, moderates are holding their own in governor's races--and some of the party's biggest rising stars are centrists in the statehouse ranks.

If Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint are the patron saints of hard-right anti-establishment types, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is their counterpart in the center. The wily head of the Republican Governors Association, a possible contender for president in 2012, preaches a big-tent philosophy that contrasts sharply with the ideological purification drive on the right."

Things have moved so far to the right that Haley Barbour is a centrist now.

But at this moment we are witnessing a shift that will likely have some enduring political impact. Another way of saying that: The past few years, a lot of people in politics have wondered about the possibility of a third party. Would it be possible to organize one? While they were wondering, a virtual third party was being born. And nobody organized it.

she said something that was stunning and true that I had not considered:
the position of at least 5 of the new tea reapublicans is that if you are a 13 year old girl and you are raped and impregnated by your father brother or uncle, the state will force you to bring to term and deliver the child of that rape.

In a stunningly moronic discussion about cloning on the Bill O'Reilly show in 2007, GOP candidate Christine O'Donnell warned of the dangers of mice with fully functioning human brains.

O'DONNELL: Bill, if we -- if we approach this complicated bioethic issue with our heads in the sand, the other end is in the air.
O'REILLY: My head isn't in the sand, Christine. I have the biggest head in the world. There isn't enough sand on the beach in Hawaii for my head to be in there.
O'DONNELL: My point is, we're approaching this issue with the other end in the air.
O'REILLY: No, no, no. Hold it.
O'DONNELL: By their own admission...
O'REILLY: No.
O'DONNELL: ... these groups admitted that the report that said, "Hey, yay, we cloned a monkey. Now we're using this to start cloning humans." We have to keep...
O'REILLY: Let them admit anything they want. But they won't do that here in the United States unless all craziness is going on.
O'DONNELL: They are -- they are doing that here in the United States. American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains. So they're already into this experiment.

let them:

Gay rights advocates went on high alert Thursday afternoon after Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a key proponent of repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, said that he believes Senate Republicans can kill the defense authorization bill containing the repeal - a step Sen. John McCain has already threatened to take.

"The question is whether the Senate leadership can negotiate an agreement with the Republicans that will allow the bill to come up and get them to feel that they can introduce amendments that they want to introduce as well," Lieberman said in an interview with Kerry Eleveld of the Advocate, a web site and magazine for the gay community. "But until that happens, I don't think the votes are there to break the filibuster, which would be a shame."

Kristin Murray, who left her position in the state party to serve as one of several campaign managers for O'Donnell during that race, said warning bells went off in June 2008 when the two were discussing cell phone plans.

"She told me that she thought Joe Biden tapped her phone line," she said.

O'Donnell's idea: To affix a clever slogan to packets that read: "Don't Get Burned By Higher Taxes. Vote Christine O'Donnell 2008" and distribute them at local parades.

"She wanted 100,000 of them," said Moore, who describes himself as "a strong conservative."

When aides told O'Donnell it was a bad idea and that the cash-poor campaign should conserve its resources for more practical items like signs and bumper stickers, Moore recalled, "She didn't take too kindly to that."

"It was an irresponsible idea," said David Keegan, who served as O'Donnell's financial officer. "And half the people in the street thought she was throwing condoms out of the truck."

The suntan lotion strategy wasn't the only thing that captured O'Donnell's attention that summer. Several former aides said that as the Republican National Convention approached, O'Donnell became convinced she could land the coveted role as keynote speaker ... and booked an expensive trip to St. Paul on that premise.

Her campaign staffers weren't the only ones who had issues with O'Donnell. Bill Lee, the 2008 GOP gubernatorial nominee who shared the ticket with her in November, said he attended many of the same political events as she did but decided to seek distance from her campaign.

"She would get off message and just be bizarre, so it reached the stage where I stopped making appearances with her. It was embarrassing," Lee said. "More than that, I was asking for money from the same people and we went as a team and I really didn't want to be on her team after a couple of those things."

And now he's going all Hoover with the hidden video sting out on the rez...as if the clerk on the register cares, or should care, about how America bleeds it's people....not her job or concern as a sovereign Poospatuck.  If there is a "cheater" here it is NY City and State.

This editorial in the Daily News nails it...just prohibit it all together if that is how you really feel Mike and Dave...but deep down every smoker knows it's all about parting us from our cash...via tax or new 50 dolla fine.

Why is the GOP elite still protesting the O'Donnell nomination win? Why not just pay her lip service, give her some cash, and let her quietly lose?

After all: party leaders - including Karl Rove - have made their peace with Sharron Angle in Nevada, who is at least as personally wacky as O'Donnell? They have joined to raise funds for Rand Paul, who though not personally wacky, upholds an extreme and sometimes ugly ideology.

Why strain at a gnat having swallowed these camels?

Here's the question to which I would like an answer: Did party leaders promise Mike Castle an easy ride to the Senate nomination if he would make the Senate run? Did O'Donnell's surprise win humiliate them by wrecking those promises? Do they worry that her success will render them less credible the next time they warn an outsider candidate not to run against a party favorite?

Just asking...

Karl Rove and the neocons were the inspiration for the Tea Party. But they've lost control and now it threatens to overwhelm them

I have no idea how to finish that.

Bill Buckley -- no Mike Castle he -- had a rule: Support the most conservative candidate who is electable.

Former eBay boss shatters record to become the biggest spending candidate in ANY U.S. election in history
Former eBay boss Meg Whitman has shattered the record for the biggest spending candidate in any U.S. election in history.

She has splashed out a staggering $119 million of her own money in her  bid to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as California's next Republican governor.