Radical Rump GOP: Backing Itself Into A Corner

George Voinovich, one of the few Republican senators to vote for the auto bailout, may be enjoying a sigh of relief about Bush suddenly becoming Detroit's guardian angel but he shouldn't really be feeling too good about the fact that the Republican party has probably destroyed its viability in the Rust Belt for the next ten years. (Voinovich will be retiring soon - will the GOP be able to hold his seat?) And what about Michigander and bailout supporter Saul Anuzis's candidacy for RNC Chair? (Or Ken Blackwell?) The GOP has put one of its most attractive candidates in an impossible position.

Two-party politics is a game of contrasts, and it seems to me that Obama's various triangulation efforts make a lot of sense when you look at the mayhem that ideology and intolerance are currently wreaking on the GOP.