Who's in Denial? Arnold or the GOP?

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

If you answered "Both", you win! The Governor made some pretty interesting statements to the LA Times Editorial Board this week:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that a healthcare overhaul would not be derailed by "Mickey Mouse"-type concerns about covering illegal immigrants. He also compared California's Republican Party to an obese person in denial, and predicted that Rudolph W. Giuliani would be his party's nominee for president. (LATimes 9/20/07)

So, you think Giuliani is going to be the nominee and you're calling the California Republican Party a fat man in denial. Well, I think it's not just the CR(a)P that's got its head in a big pile of mashed potatoes and gravy. Rudy's numbers are falling like a lead baloon as Thompson and others are picking off voters who realize that Giuliani is in fact a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-gun, and not nativist enough. Of course, Rudy is a reactionary on foreign and fisacal policy, but in today's GOP, you have to be reactionary across the board. A single blemish of moderation shall smote you where you stand! Flip it...

I'm not sure what party Arnold thinks he belongs to, but it is not a party of moderation, or a party of good policy even. It is growing ever more distant from reality as it seeks to feed from only its only trough of right-wing voters.  A few days ago, Lincoln Chafee, the former moderate GOP Senator from Rhode Island, announced he has left the GOP because it is no longer a bing tent:

[T]he national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment. “It’s not my party any more,” he said."

 Let's look at this objectively. Duf Sundheim, the former somewhat moderate CRP chair is gone, and has been replaced by Ron Nehring, who is not so moderate. The national party continues to fight to see who hates the immigrants most. Brian Bilbray is in the lead, by the way. And oh, by the way, only John McCain (who is being pummeled himself for being too moderate and has no money) is the only presidential candidate who will even bother to show up at any minority-sponsored debates. No, the GOP is headed for irrelevance on a one-way ticket to crazy-town. 

 Arnold's just watching as towns like "Nativist City" and "Global Warming HoaxVille" whir by in the window. So, Governor, get off now, or just enjoy the ride into obliviion.