Airing The Dirty Laundry

The effect of Mike Huckabee's unfortunate comment about Mormons, which has led to the ridiculous apology of "I didn't know what I was saying about his religion, I'm just a simple theology student," has been that the econo-con/fundie-con debate within the GOP has spilled out into public view, and everybody's running for cover. Today the Krauthammer lamented:

This campaign is knee-deep in religion, and it's only going to get worse. I'd thought that the limits of professed public piety had already been achieved during the Republican CNN/YouTube debate when some squirrelly looking guy held up a Bible and asked, "Do you believe every word of this book?" -- and not one candidate dared reply: None of your damn business.

Instead, Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee bent a knee and tried appeasement with various interpretations of scriptural literalism. The right answer, the only answer, is that the very question is offensive.

The bargain that conservative elites have made with the theocrats was never sustainable. But the elites always thought that they could pay some lip service and beat them back at the polls. With the rise of Huck's Army in Iowa, led in large part by Christian home-schoolers, the elites are skittish. But the truth is that the GOP is so balkanized, that Huckabee cannot possibly become a unifying figure, even in particular portions of the base. The Minutemen are in a full-blown slap-fight over Jim Gilchrist's endorsement, labeling him an opportunist. This slick video from a Huckabee detractor shows that the campaign is getting uglier and uglier. (UPDATE: it's now been removed from YouTube.)

The point is that the warts of the Republican Party are on full display for an electorate that is recoiling.