I am about to go somewhere, but in the meantime do feel free to discuss the “Republicans are the problem” article that is getting so much attention. See also Doghouse Riley, who says “It took you thirty years to notice this?”

Re Doghouse: In the Republican Party’s defense, it wasn’t all Joe McCarthy back in the 1950s. Eisenhower was a Republican, too, and behind the scenes Eisenhower and some of his close advisers — including Nixon, for pity’s sake — arranged to maneuver McCarthy into the Army-McCarthy hearings, which were his undoing. It’s not true that the Republican Party was always twisted and crazy. What happened is that the twisted and crazy parts of it metastasized and killed the rest of it. And the current crew makes Reagan seem benign.