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I hate to say it, but it looks like Al Franken was right after all: Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.

El Rushbo is now quoted as saying that if the Republicans nominate McCain, he might vote for the Democrat:

"If I believe the country will suffer with either Hillary, Obama or McCain, I would just as soon the Democrats take the hit... rather than a Republican causing the debacle."

Republicans have been spoiled. They had an icon - Ronald Reagan - whose memory has attained mythic proportions. And they had it all in George W Bush, arguably the most bumbling and disastrous President in the history of the United States, who saddled the country with an ineptly managed and costly war and a record deficit, but who gets a pass because, after all, he is religious, and his most influential political philosopher is Jesus Christ.

So the Republicans, now having gotten religion, want to write out of their party anyone with a remotely heretical view. That goes double for Mr. McCain who, to the horror of Limbaugh and his followers, actually believes in forming cooperative alliances with the other side.

This excellent column perfectly describes the new Republican purge of the infidels: "With their inflexibility, grudge-holding and eagerness to evict heretics rather than seek converts, too many of conservatism’s leaders sound like the custodians of a dwindling religious denomination or a politically correct English department at a fading liberal-arts college." Read the rest of that column; it's a good one.

The Born Again Republicans are becoming so pure that they will write themselves into irrelevancy. If the Democrats win this time - in part thanks to those Republican faithful - they will be entrenched for the foreseeable future. There is no other moderate Republican of national stature waiting in the wings, and the party will fall into the hands of unelectables like Romney and Huckabee. The Ugly Republicans will have maintained their purity, at the expense of power.

I will close with a letter I sent to Mr. Limbaugh. Who knows, he may even read it:

Dear Mr. Limbaugh,

I used to be a big fan of yours. But your diatribes against John McCain have completely turned me off. McCain may not be your ideal candidate, but he is way better than anything the Democrats have to offer. Stirring up animosity against McCain, who most likely will be the party's nominee, is no way to serve the Republican Party. Are you trying to talk Hillary Clinton into the White House? Do you figure that her election will give you better material to work with during the next 4 to 8 years? Do you really care about the Republican Party's chances? Or are you some kind of double agent?

Maybe not, if you say you're not, but if you were, it would be hard to see how you would be acting differently.

You're certainly entitled to support Romney or Huckabee if you wish. You are entitled to say McCain is not conservative enough, and that you'd prefer somebody else. But the angry diatribes only undermine the values you claim to stand for.

I know the drill. You can say that if McCain is nominated, people can vote against Hillary (or Obama or whoever) if not for McCain. But how many, influenced by your campaign of incitement, will not vote against Hillary or against Obama but will sit out the election? Already some conservatives are talking about becoming "suicide voters" and voting for the Democrat!

To them and to you I would offer the following words from William Kristol's recent New York Times column ("Give McCain His Due"):

"When the primaries are over, if McCain has won the day, don’t sulk and don’t sit it out. Don’t pretend there’s no difference between a candidate who’s committed to winning in Iraq and a Democratic nominee who embraces defeat. Don’t tell us that it doesn’t matter if the next president voted to confirm John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court or opposed them. Don’t close your eyes to the difference between pro-life and pro-choice, or between resistance to big government and the embrace of it.

"And don’t treat 2008 as a throwaway election. If a Democrat wins the presidency, he or she will almost certainly have a Democratic Congress to work with. That Congress will not impede a course of dishonourable retreat abroad. It won’t balk at liberal Supreme Court nominees at home. It won’t save the economy from tax hikes."

So you see, a lot is at stake, whether or not McCain is your perfect candidate.

Well, you won't listen to Bob Dole so you certainly won't listen to me. But you have lost this former fan, and I suspect many more. You probably won't even read this letter, but I would at least like your staffers to know that you are turning off a lot of people out here who used to like you. I am thoroughly disgusted.

And if the Democrats do win in November, I will be wondering about the role you played.