KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT GOP CRAZIES WILL CALM DOWN ANY DAY NOW

Paul Ryan is about to become Speaker of the House, and he's expected by some to be a healer; before he gets the job, a budget deal that will prevent a default or shutdown will pass Congress and be signed by the president. In the GOP presidential race, Donald Trump has lost his lead -- yes, he's been replaced by Ben Carson, who's as demagogic as Trump and as poorly informed, but hey, at least Carson is soft-spoken and thoughtful rather than brash and boorish. Oh, and if Trump can fade, surely Carson will fade next, and then we'll have a sober-sided, within-the-pale Republican presidential nominee to go along with our new consensus-choice Speaker. Maybe it'll be Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio -- or maybe it'll be that nice John Kasich, who's mad as heck about the irrationality of Trump and Carson!

Yes, the fever is passing, isn't it? Republicans will start playing well with others any minute now, won't they?

Um, no -- not if this is indicative of the mood among Repubican voters:

If this PPP poll of NC Republicans is any indication, a Clinton presidency in 2017 is going to be splendiferous quantities of awesome from day one.

No one in the media will take this poll seriously, just as no one has ever taken seriously the many, many polls showing that Republicans doubt President Obama was born in the United States. These polls weren't taken seriously even after a birther led GOP presidential polls for three months. And no, the North Carolina Republicans who say this aren't just angry Trump and Carson backers -- according to the poll's crosstabs, 71% of that nice Marco Rubio's supporters think Clinton should be impeached immediately, as do 72% of Chris Christie supporters and 95% of Rand Paul supporters.

The trend-piece writers in the political press are itching to declare that the current craziness in the GOP is temporary. It's not. It's endemic, and it's only going to get worse.