Excellent post and comments at Washington Monthly:
One argument that I hear frequently from moderate conservatives is that although they don't like the Christian right much, they continue to support the Republican party because they don't think it has that much influence. Liberals, they say, are just overreacting.
If there's anything good that might come from the impending Supreme Court fight, it's the possibility that these folks might realize that times have changed: the Christian right is no longer just a bunch of marginalized yahoos who get nothing but lip service from cynical Republican leaders.
We started to see that in Schaivo but that was just batting practice. This might be the moment where the fundamentalists overplay their hand and the whole Republican Party rips apart.
I just have this sneaking suspicion - a hope, perhaps - that Bush will choose this moment to pursue his personal Grail. He badly, badly wants to win Hispanics over to the GOP. That's a flawed strategy, given the depths of nativism in the GOP base. But he's a true believer and might be blinded to the downside. The fundamentalists have made it clear that Gonzales is unacceptable because he's not a guaranteed vote to overturn Roe, and more and more broad hints keep popping up that make me expect a Gonzales nomination.
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