Today's Republican Party

Over at Bleeding Heartland, DesMoinesDem takes a look at today's Republican party in a post called Checking in on Republican Culture. She talks about the decline of the moderate Republican and the rise of the religous right.

She quotes an article by Time's Joe Klein about a focus group ratings of the CNN/YouTube debate that took place last week. The amazing part of Klein's article, that is the heart of DesMoinesDem's post, shows how much Republicans love torture.

When John McCain started talking about torture--specifically, about waterboarding--the dials plummeted again. Lower even than for the illegal Children of God. Down to the low 20s, which, given the natural averaging of a focus group, is about as low as you can go. Afterwards, Luntz asked the group why they seemed to be in favor of torture. "I don't have any problem pouring water on the face of a man who killed 3000 Americans on 9/11," said John Shevlin, a retired federal law enforcement officer. The group applauded, appallingly.