More Evidence That The Ideological Tail Wags the GOP Dog

Not so long ago, I had this to say about the current presidential campaign: "The continuous circus sideshow otherwise known as the Republican presidential debates has exposed the GOP's scary twin obsessions with ideological purity and demonizing their opponents."  I wrote those words partially in response to Rick Perry's claim that he would purge the government civil service of those who did not agree with his political philosophy.  Now it appears that the Newtron bomb has upped the ante saying that president Gingrich would send out US Marshals to arrest judges who made decisions that he did not agree with.  Perhaps the death of Kim Jong Il has pushed these words off of the front pages, but they are as chilling as they are outrageous.  We essentially have the leading candidate for one of the two major parties for president openly bragging that he would destroy the independence of the judiciary through authoritarian means.  (It can't happen here, you say?  Anyone remember the purge of the Justice Department in the last administration?)  I've said it before, and I will say it again: the modern Republican party has ceased to be a political party in the traditional American sense, and has become a vehicle for an extremist political theology.  If the increasingly dire pronouncements by its presidential candidates don't convince you, the most recent hostage-taking attempt by the House GOP over the payroll tax should.  With any luck these tinpot crackpots will have worn out their welcome with the sane sectors of the public long before November of 2012.