There is a good deal of discussion about the make-up of the Republican party these days by news analysts. I mainly watch MSNBC, predominantly Democratic in orientation but still, unlike Fox, gives a lot of air time to conservatives. They do try.

Recent discussions have often analyzed what has happened to the Republican party and this was again in the spotlight because of this past week’s defection of Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, switching from Republican to Democrat, presumably giving the Democrats the 60th vote that would ensure passage of most of their legislation. Also, the excruciatingly slow acknowledgment of Al Franken’s win in Minnesota loses some of its steam. That, incidentally, is a no-win for the Republicans but they pursue it as spoilers, trying to delay another Democratic vote for as long as they can.

There are balanced Republicans out there who are switching parties as well. Ed was one of them. What did it for him was Sarah Palin, the religious fanatic, environmental Hitler, and soccer mom with a failed daughter who was being forced into a disastrous marriage (this didn't happen -- it all came tumbling down)and a Down's syndrome baby whose unfortunate condition she used to good advantage among her base by parading it on TV. Personally if I had a special needs infant, I would want to protect it from the vultures.

The balanced Republicans aren’t all switching, of course, and I believe this is because they don’t know what has happened and are living in the past. When the Republican party wooed the religious right to gain votes in 2000 and earlier, they succeeded because they still had their center. But thinking Republicans are realizing that they have been pushed out and marginalized and they are switching parties. Or at the very least, keeping their registration, but voting for Democrats.

The Republicans are losing their center and they can’t win without it. Little did they realize when they made this deal, that they were spelling their demise. Now the party is the party of the south, the uninformed, the moral Nazis … and the center is running away from this crowd as fast as it can.

The party of the Reagans, the Rockefellers, the William Buckleys, no longer exists.

Regain some balance? Observers are saying maybe in 10 years. Yes, if they were trying and if they had the guts to tell the fanatics they aren’t calling the shots any more. I don’t see this happening. Make that, maybe, 20 years.

Meanwhile, Republican response to everything Obama does is “no” and the best they can do is to suggest the policies of the past eight years be continued. They have no new plan, no original thought, no alternative to Democratic proposals. The boat was sinking and the Republicans are complaining about Democratic solutions without offering any of their own.

xx, Teal