Republican party “just plain nuts”

Boston Globe commentary: "Let’s not mince words here: We now have an entire political party that is not only dedicated to the mediocre. It is dedicated to the nearly deranged."

What is under the radar is something more recent and more terrifying for the health of our political system: The Republican Party has become a small minority of out-of-mainstream people (think Representative Joseph Wilson’s outburst to the president this week) but, by virtue of its history, of the media attention it receives, and, frankly, by default, it still occupies a central place in our political life. In any other Western democracy it might have become a far-right splinter party. In America, we don’t really have splinter parties. When one of our parties goes crazy, it doesn’t slide to the margins.

And from the LA Times:

[Some repuke] party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP's broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid.

And while some conservative critics have called on the RNC to disassociate themselves from their paranoid, ‘hideously embarrassing’ lunatics, it just ain’t gonna happen:

Insiders' criticisms have been dismissed by some conservative leaders, who argue that the party needs an energized base -- even if it's extreme -- to gain in future elections.

Just great.