"This White House thinks its base is stupid." Now you know what it feels like, people.

the far-right, wingnut, ultra-conservative base wakes up to find out what the liberals and progressives have been subject to the past six and one-half years... and, of all people to point this out, peggy noonan, the crazed wsj op-ed writer...

The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

[...]

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

while ms. noonan may not have truly seen the light, she's at least screwed her head back on tight enough to be able to take some steps in that direction...

Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.

the temptation is to indulge in schadenfreude... well, more than indulge, more like positively revel... but that would be to make light of the situation... bush and his criminal compadres have cynically wooed, used, and manipulated the conservative base, a base they have shown they don't even like or trust, and now the base is waking up, and it looks like the immigration bill is what finally tipped over the apple cart... too bad it took so long...

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