Democrats Just Love Those Ticket Splittin' Republicans!

Conservative candidates Mike Castle (DE), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Charlie Crist (FL) and Doug Hoffman (NY) represent the GOP's worst nightmare as it heads into the November midterms. Moderates Murkowski, Castle and Crist lost their Senate primaries to their extreme radical Tea Party opponents Joe Miller, Christine O'Donnell and Marco Rubio respectively, while Tea Party darling Hoffman lost his bid to snag New York's District 23 House seat to another radical wingnut, Matt Doheny. That seat, in particular, causes major heartburn for the GOP, as Hoffman lost the special election in 2009 to Bill Owens after his Tea Baggin' supporters pushed moderate Dede Scozzafava out of the race. It was the first time a Democrat had won the district since the Civil War era.

So what exactly has the Republican Party so upset? As it strives to recapture control of the House and Senate, candidates like Castle, Murkowski, Crist and Hoffman, choosing to run on the Conservative party line or as write-ins, threaten to monumentally derail this goal.

They're the ticket-splitters. The Tea Party-crashers. They're turning everything upside down in critical races and dampening Republicans' spirits as right wing media blowhards like Sean Hannity vilify them daily as "sore losers." And we all know in Hannity's perfect little Republican world everyone always plays fair, right?

To be sure, Democrats are enjoying sitting back with their popcorn buckets as they watch the GOP Civil War get nastier and bloodier by the minute, making it even likelier that the left will have another two years at the controls.