THE NEXT GENERATION?

Maybe you know Debbie Schlussel, an Ann Coulter wannabe last seen around these parts trashing the memory of Marla Ruzicka, a humanitarian-aid worker in Iraq who was killed in a car bombing. (Schlussel calls Ruzicka "Treasonatrix Barbie.") Now Schlussel claims to know the identity of a forthcoming Bush judicial nominee -- and she's not exactly shy about expressing her disapproval:

BREAKING SCHLUSSEL EXCLUSIVE: Bush to Nominate PORN ADDICT, TERROR SYMPATHIZER, RACIST to Court of Appeals

Oh, don't hold back, Debbie. Tell us what you really think.

Here are a few of the Schlussel's claims about the alleged nominee, Stephen Murphy (the sources for which are primarily Schlussel's earlier Web postings and an anonymous e-mail):

* Spent his days as an Assistant U.S. Attorney showing fellow U.S. Attorneys his favorite porn on the web. (Sources say he may have done the same as U.S. Attorney.)

* Broke federal law by leaking federal grand jury proceedings to Detroit News reporter (and fabricator) David Shepardson.

* Repeatedly hosted HAMAS and Iraqi Insurgent financiers and anti-Semites in his office and repeatedly praised them.

* Deliberately sat on multiple terror indictments and waited until Hezbollah terrorists were safely out of the country before he chose to do anything against them....

Are these outrageous charges? Sure. Are any of them true? I couldn't possibly know.

What I do know is that this is where the right is headed if Republicans continue to encourage the angriest voters and if they continue to defend their most vicious mainstream attack dogs. If prominent Republicans keep defending the likes of Ann Coulter, while encouraging the rank and file to think like Ann Coulter, eventually there'll be more and more people who try to become Ann Coulter by outdoing Ann Coulter -- people like Debbie Schlussel. There are going to be a lot of Schlussels in the near future -- and isn't that what the right says it wants, with its relentless sneering about the "MSM"?

But therer's no reason to think that the people in the next wave are going to hold back just because fellow Republicans might get hurt. They're conservative fundamentalists -- and they will enforce the faith. Schlussel may not do any real damage to Murphy or anyone else this time, but future Schlussels might draw real blood -- especially if, in the future, some Republican naively believes its possible to deviate from the True Faith and get away with it. True Believers have already scorched Bush on the Harriet Miers nomination, immigration, Dubai, and gay marriage; future Republicans could get hit with worse -- from monsters that came out of their own party's lab.