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Maryland Republican Party

The GOP's Crazy Core

Robert KuttnerAug 21, 2012

The pragmatic Republican establishment (despite the Tea Party, there still is one) is frantic to jettison Representative Todd Akin’s toxic comments on conception and rape, and to quarantine the scientifically-challenged congressman.

Much of the commentary has been about how Akin’s clumsiness connects to Republican vulnerability on other issues important to women. But this raises a larger question: Why is the Republican lunatic position politically toxic only on this particular issue?

That's How We Do It on the Street, Lunch Meat!

Paul WaldmanJan 04, 2011

If we've learned anything in the last couple of years, it's that the costs of political looniness are limited and localized. The Republican Party has galloped to the right, with some of its most visible spokespeople being ... well, let's just say not a group of wise and reasonable statesmen. Yet they certainly didn't suffer much for it at the polls in November. Yes, some of their craziest candidates lost, but the extremism of people like Sharron Angle did little to impede the GOP wave.

Michael Steele's Lost Opportunity.

Adam SerwerMay 24, 2010

Had Michael Steele forcefully criticized Rand Paul's views on the Civil Rights Act prior to other leading Republicans, he might have diminished the sense among black Democrats that his presence in the Republican Party is meant to do little more than exonerate the GOP from charges of racism. Instead, Steele waited until most of the leadership had already distanced themselves from Paul's statements, and then he went on the Sunday shows armed with mild criticisms.