Republicans at war.......

.....with each other

Digby brings us an article in TNR by Spencer Ackerman on the purge of the ideological impure from the Republican think tanks, specifically John Hulsman. The final paragraph of the quote covers something I have been thinking about recently.

"If the midterms go badly, the civil war in the GOP starts the day after," Hulsman says. "The neocons and Kristol will say that Bush is incompetent and the neocons are not to blame." Maybe then it'll be Hulsman who leads the next purge.

Of course as Iraq continues to descend into chaos and civil war we are already seeing it. Bill Kristol has been demanding Rumsfeld's held for almost two years. I'm not sure that it will even be necessary for the midterms to go badly, although it certainly looks like they will, I think it will happen anyway. The cons having been gentle up to this point, I suspect holding back until after the midterms so as not to make the midterm results even worse. The reality is every adventure that was spawned by the failed neocon ideology has been a failure. In an attempt to salvage the ideology scape goats will be needed. Enter Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld. We saw Kristol call for Lieberman's appointment as Defense Secretary on Saturday. Now people like Kristol may be sick and evil but they are not stupid. They must realize the Iraq adventure is over. Iraq was going to be the centerpiece of the neocons great plan. It will be necessary to pin the blame on individuals to save the ideology.