conservatives vs reactionaries

Almost a year ago I told my political friends that Ted Cruz would be the GOP presidential nominee. They all thought I was joking-- or insane. Oh, look, even Rich Lowry agrees now.

19th century American poet, essayist and champion of individual freedoms, Ralph Waldo Emerson, had a pretty good definition of what it means to be a conservative in his The Conduct of Life: "All conservatives are such from personal defects.

Get used to seeing pictures of New Jersey teabagger Steve Lonegan yellingSteve Stockman's deranged "John Cornyn-is-a-liberal" campaign really is something to behold.

Plus: Worst spam of the day"When Ted Cruz lies, he appears to be praying. His lips narrow, almost disappearing into his face, and his eyebrows shift abruptly, rising like a drawbridge on his forehead into matching acute angles.

Nunes calls teabaggers "lemmings with suicide vests"-- but he votes with them 100% of the timeNo one ever accused Devin Nunes of being a "moderate." He's a hardcore conservative whose political career has been financed by the insurance industry, corporate agriculture and Big Pharma. Although his San Joaquin Valley district (CA-22) is increasingly Hispanic, the voters are still Republican enough there for him to not have to worry about Democrats seriously challenging him.

Far right Republican Congressman Gary Miller (CA) was basically redistricted out of office... except he managed to win a very blue district because of a quirk in California's new election law that found him running against a fellow Republican in the general, all the Democrats having eliminated each other in a crowded open primary. Obama had won what is now CA-31 (Colton Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga) with 122,691 votes (57%) against McCain's 89,376 (41%) in 2008. Last year Obama scored another 57-41% victory in the district, taking 118,043.

On Saturday, John Culberson (R-TX), marched out of the GOP House caucus meeting that had resolved to shut down the government, shouting "Let's Roll," a true suicide-bombing terrorist. Except his neatly gerrymandered R+13 district (which Romney won 60-39%) won't extract any penalty from its harebrained congressman.

Suicide bomber vests strapped to their chests, congressional Republicans have a message for the American people: "Give us our way, or we'll blow the whole damn thing up!" And by their way, they're talking about a lot more than defunding the Affordable Care Act. Yesterday, the NY Times Editorial Board was aghast at the Republican demands-- and they called it what it is A Republican Ransom Note.

President Obama almost got a third of the votes in Mike Simpson's congressional district last year, down from a whopping 37% against McCain four years earlier. ID-02, like ID-01, is one red hellhole! Mike Simpson has been the congressman there since being elected in 1998. Before that, he was Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives. Since being elected, Simpson's lowest share of the vote was last year (65.1%, not quite two to one). He's had over 70% three times. He gets challenged by extremists from time to time but always beats them to a pulp without breaking a sweat.

I honestly never understood why the Beltway media-- all of it-- insists on calling far right extremists "conservatives," when they are obviously reactionaries and not conservative at all. John McCain, Susan Collins, Joe Manchin, Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski are mainstream conservatives.