Republicans: Running on Crazy... or Running Out of It?

You wouldn't think the GOP was nearly all out of lunacy, to hear Minority Leader John Boehner howling "Hell, no, you can't" like a madman on the floor of the House of Representatives. Especially since his message is so pure, so Zen in its simple lunacy: Stop health.

The problem is, that the true believers in the fight against health are less likely to be around in two years for the 2012 election.

Like any resource, insane ideas are a finite commodity. Decades ago, they were so plentiful the GOP had an embarrassment of them: loyalty oaths, fluoridation, flag-burning amendments. Today, they seem not so much mad, as quaint. They lack the true, edgy danger of a really crazy notion, like reneging on medical care, or civil rights.

As youngsters grow more liberal in social values, it seems unlikely that Republicans can keep relying on new voters eager to make total strangers miserable. And then again, there are so many closeted gay Republicans, that anti-gay crusades become as self-defeating as crusades against health.

So where is the next crazy non-issue to come from?

I'll start: How about the death penalty for killer whales?