THE FIREBAGGING NEXT TIME

TBogg:

...Earlier today I got into a little scuffle by being "unpleasant" again in a Seminal diary which advocated primarying Obama. Needless to say: dumb. Now I go back and see what the brain trust has come up with:

HOT THOUGHT: If Feingold loses his reelection campaign this year, he could be a possibility....

Yes.
Convince the guy who can’t even win his own state running as the incumbent to run against a sitting President of the same party. This is a good idea....

(The Firedoglake diary he's referring to, "Primary Obama," is here.)

Look, I've been grumpy about Obama (and I admit I find myself getting a bit grumpy about his latest Supreme Court nominee), but, um, really? We should primary Obama with Russ Feingold if Feingold loses his Senate election?

The night in 2006 when Rick Santorum got his head handed to him by Pennsylvania voters, Bill Bennett went on CNN and said,

"You will see a movement in the grassroots for Santorum to run."

He meant for president. And Santorum, though he had the good sense not to make a fool of himself by running two years ago, may actually run in 2012.

Bennett's words (and Santorum's water-testing) suggest what helped bring the GOP low in 2006 and 2008, and what might either keep the party marginal or bring it down again after a temporary resurgence: Republicans don't really respect anyone who doesn't think like them. That's a serious problem if you're running candidates for office in, y'know, a democracy.

Well, anyone who thinks you should run Russ Feingold for president if he loses his Senate race has the same sort of tunnel vision as Bennett and Santorum.

But hey, I've been expecting a 2012 primary challenge to Obama since last spring -- and as I said last May, I assumed it would come from the Firedoglake/Glenn Greenwald crowd.

And after that, I'm sure there'll be full-throated support for the inevitable Nader third-party run. And maybe it'll all lead to a sufficiently divided vote in November 2012 that we'll wake up the morning after Election Day with a president-elect who fully backs a Republican platform like the one just adopted by Maine's GOP:

The document calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve, demands an investigation of "collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth," suggests the adoption of "Austrian Economics," declares that "'Freedom of Religion' does not mean 'freedom from religion'" (which I guess makes atheism illegal), insists that "healthcare is not a right," calls for the abrogation of the "UN Treaty on Rights of the Child" and the "Law Of The Sea Treaty" and declares that we must resist "efforts to create a one world government."

That'll be a great victory for the left.

(More on the Firebaggers from Zandar and in this Rumproast thread.)