POOR DAN BENISHEK!

Bart Stupak is going to retire, and now the most miserable guy in America is probably the Republican who was likely to be his opponent:

Republicans have rallied around surgeon Dan Benishek, a tea party favorite, who received very little attention until Stupak voted for the health care legislation....

Benishek was on track to raise some serious money:

Benishek is expected to raise over $100,000 this quarter, according to GOP sources, a large amount for a first-time candidate who had virtually no campaign infrastructure before Stupak received national attention over his health care positioning.

He's been profiled by The Weekly Standard. He was interviewed by Mark Levin. He was interviewed for RedState. He was on Sean Hannity's show last night. He's amassed nearly 23,000 Facebook friends. After the Stupak vote, Robert Stacy McCain said that he "just became the most popular Republican in America." And this is a guy who didn't even have a campaign Web site three weeks ago.

But now what's going to happen to him? I think he knows. Check out this desperate-seeming (if syntactically challenged) message on that campaign site:

Like I said yesterday, "I'm Running for Congress, Not Against Stupak!"

... I am running against Washington and that problem persists because Enough is Enough. Washington is out of control because it is run by people who are out of touch and he wants to changes that.

And this equally desperate message:

Today we learned that Rep. Bart Stupak announced his retirement. I wish him and his family all of the best. My intention when I got into this race was not to run AGAINST Bart Stupak, but to run FOR the people of the 1st District who feel that Washington is out of control because it is run by people who are out of touch. Washington is still broken, with or without Bart Stupak....

Forget it pal. You were on track to have it all: the media attention, the wingnut PAC money, the face time with Sarah Palin ... and now you're just another schmuck who'll be running to fill an open seat. You were going to be the embodiment of the right's unquenchable hatred for its enemies, and now Antichrist #6378 is prematurely dead, and you didn't even get to load your weapon. You're fishwrap, Benishek. You may win, but the people who were going to wear BENISHEK FOR PRESIDENT T-shirts if you beat Bart won't care. Because you may care about what you stand for, but all they care about is vengeance.