re: #8 mikec6666

It was a long time coming, but I think the exact point in time they copletely lost it was when they sanctioned the Swiftboat ads against John Kerry in the 2004 campaign. That was the point at which you could distinguish the former GOP from the new GOP. The new one in which no false reality is too far fetched.

The Clinton Derangement was really bad—the whole “Hillary left the White House and shot Vince Foster in the park” crowd was really frightening. They were very tied in with the rise of the militia movement, and made bizarre heroes out of David Koresh and Randy Weaver.

Then you have the tactics that were used against John McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000. Karl Rove opened his arms and welcomed the nutjobs into the party to get his boy the nomination, and the Bush administration set them a place at the table.