There's a lot of Republican angst over the coming elections. They fear they are going to get trounced. Democrats now lead in polls on every issue. Some Republicans like Newt Gingrich are calling for the party to chart a new course to regain the advantage. Yet he offers no new course, just a taste of the old.

The problem for the GOP is they have no new course to set. They have pushed through pretty much everything they wanted over the last six years, and Americans have discovered what a disaster that created. The only things Republicans didn't push through are policies voters really hate, like destroying Social Security.

We've hit the crest of the Republican wave, and it has no where to go but back. I'm not even sure another major terrorist attack could scare the public back their way. GOP, welcome to your nightmare.

Gee, what some people will say when they aren't running for reelection anymore:

"The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they'd take it off the shelf," said retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.)

Of course the problem is that politics isn't a brand. The GOP did a great job of pulling the wool over everyone's eyes for so long they began to believe their own BS. Now that their tax-cutting, deficit-running, self-regulating, accountability-free government has created a disaster too large to ignore, they want to blame it on bad branding.

Seems The Hammer doesn't like John McCain:

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) lambasted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday for “betraying” the conservative movement.

During a private luncheon with Republican chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill, DeLay — who has criticized McCain for years — stepped up his attacks in the wake of the senator’s reemergence as a top presidential contender. DeLay said McCain has no principles and indicated he would not endorse the senator if he won the GOP primary.

“If McCain gets the nomination, I don’t know what I’ll do,” DeLay said at the Capitol Hill Club, according to a source in the room. “I might have to sit this one out.”

He added that a McCain triumph for the GOP nomination would destroy the Republican Party.

How many other DeLay folks are willing to follow him?

One look at these stats and it's clear that the GOP is in deep you-know-what:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)356,000
Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

When Republicans in a marginally red state can't turn out enough voters for a hotly contested caucus to give their chosen one more votes than the third-place Democrat, then we could be looking at a rout come November. Democrats and Independents are fed up with Bush and the GOP, and they are excited about voting in a Democratic administration.

Senate Republicans set a new record for filibusters. They didn't just break the record, they are destroying it with their constant foot-dragging.

There have been 72 filibusters so far, beating the old record of 68. But 110th Congress is not even half over. Republicans are on track to more than double the old record, an accomplishment of delay and obstruction unparalleled any time in history.

This is the most underreported story in Washington. President Bush complains that Congress isn't doing their job, yet it's his allies in the Senate who are gumming up the works.

georgia10 at Dailykos has a great piece about how, faced with public opposition on almost every issue, the GOP focuses its attacks on the personalities:

And oh, what masters of deflection Republicans have become. A debate about whether to invade Iraq becomes a debate about whether Joe Wilson's undercover CIA wife hooked him up with a sweet junket overseas. A debate on stem cell research becomes a debate about whether Michael J. Fox exaggerates his symptoms. A debate about the right to privacy becomes a debate about whether Terri's blinks were voluntary. A debate on Iraq policy becomes a debate about how mean people are to General Petraeus. A debate about health care becomes a full-blown investigation into the lifestyles of 12 year old Graeme Frost and 2 year old Bethany Wilkerson. A debate about curbing global climate change becomes a debate about how many compact fluorescent light bulbs Al Gore has in his house. A debate about the shameful level of poverty in this country becomes a debate about how much money John Edwards spent on a haircut. A debate about who's qualified to be president becomes a debate about who does or does not wear a lapel pin. A debate about executive accountability becomes a debate about whether Representative Stark hurt Mr. Bush's feelings.

Knowing that they cannot emerge victoriously out of a battle of ideas, Republicans latch on to individuals instead. Public figures and private citizens alike are fair game as the right-wing noise machine turns its cacophony-creating media apparatus in non-discriminating fashion upon any individual, any prey that can serve to distract even for one minute from the utter vapidity of the Republican platform today.

I think she has a point, though I think she also misunderstands why this works. Image almost always triumphs over issues. While some of of have no problems grasping abstract political ideas, for most people those ideas need to be connected to real, live people to make sense.

Here prescription for the Democrats to ignore the GOP noise machine is only half right. The other part is that Democrats have to connect their good ideas to people, and connect the GOP's bad ideas to people as well.

After seeing how the public got to ask the questions in the Democratic YouTube Debate, the brave GOP candidates are jumping off the ship. Seems they don't want any unscripted questions to break through their carefully crafted images.

The real question is, are they afraid they will get some tough questions about Iraq, or do they fear that one of their wingnut supporters will toss out some missive best discussed behind party doors? Do they really want America to see how radical and out-of-touch they are?

The Democrats have to be delighted about this. I can see the campaign commercials now, how the GOP is scared to answer citizen questions, the wimps. Should be fun.

I listened for years as the GOP faithful bellyached about Bill Clinton, as he changed and adjusted his stances on the issues of the day. He had no principles, they said, not like a Republican.

Well, meet Mitt Romney, the GOP answer to Bill Clinton. He's slick, good-looking, and seemingly changes his stance on every issue depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Or course, Rudi Giuliani isn't far behind in this department.

Still waiting for those principled Republicans to decry their own candidates' lack of principles. This seems to be yet another case of do as the GOP says, not as it does.

While Bush is bashing Nancy Pelosi for going to Syria, he's silent about the Republican congressmen who are there already.

To use the word hypocrisy to describe Bush's complaints about Pelosi would be an insult to hypocrites.

With the Family Values Party fielding a host of presidential candidates with a history of divorces and extra-marital affairs, it's a given that some of the longshots like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will start taking their shots:

"If Republicans in this election vote in such a way as to say a candidate's personal life and personal conduct in office doesn't matter, then a lot of Christian evangelical leaders owe Bill Clinton a public apology."