Ugly GOP Tooberz Debate By: Mark W Adams

I just wanted to make a quick comment in the middle of watching the GOP presidential debates, and couldn't believe how much these guys simply hate each other -- except Tancredo who seems to be enjoying the circular firing squad from his quiet corner stage left.

And then, just when I thought it couldn't get any uglier, "ordinary citizen/U-Tuber" Grover (Drown Government in a Bathtub) Norquist is on the big screen -- six feet tall -- challenging each of these guys to pledge they wouldn't raise taxes. They all lied in response of course. Okay, I'm hooked into live blogging it.

Ugh. At least Anderson Cooper is (ineffectually) moderating instead of Beard Blitzer. But to be fair, there's no controlling Mitt and Rudy who must have turned off twice as many people as they attracted, by far.

Giuliani and Mitt shouted at each other and were both boo'd. Mitt yelled at Huckabee (you don't mess with a preacher dude, what's wrong with you), and were both boo'd -- what's up with that? McCain crossed the Godwin Line by implying Ron Paul was a Hitler enabler, and was boo'd -- and should have had rotten tomatoes thrown at him. Mitt got slapped by McCain, and was cheered. Fred Thompson looked like he needed a nap and sounded like he missed his meds.

Oh, and Duncan Hunter was there. I guess he singlehandedly built a 70 mile double fence (with a road through it) to keep the brown people out of San Diego, or something, and eliminated all crime and drugs and illegal lettuce pickers in Southern California -- from his apartment in the D.C. Suburbs. Take THAT Chuck Norris!

Speaking of Chuck Norris' candidate, Mike Huckabee. If he didn't win over the Christo-con faction of the GOP tonight, he never will. He absolutely NAILED a question on whether he believes the literal word of the Bible as true. Outstanding answer, best I've ever seen a candidate of any stripe handle that type of question.

Personally I don't care what they think of the bible as long as they understand some of it is interpretive rather than literal. But when Huck said he didn't understand all of it, and he isn't supposed to, then said the simple things (like the golden rule) are what we have to concentrate before we get into a debate over the hard stuff -- my jaw dropped. He just articulated the perfect response to that dumb question and every politician from any party ought to comit that answer to memory.

It was nearly impossible not to wonder just what any of these demagogues would do if Hillary isn't the nominee. She is the boogeyman of them all, especially Romney, Freddy and Rudy. My head nearly exploded when Romney answered a question about the federal debt and social security, saying what we needed is not to follow Hillary off a cliff to the left, but follow the "proper" course of Reagan.

Remember Reagan? You know, the guy who started the idea that "deficits don't matter" followed by Bush/Bush/Cheney, instead of Clintonomics which gave us the first surplus since Andrew Jackson. Reagan, the guy who made stealing from social security to pay for deficit spending a multi-trillion dollar free-for-all. Unbelievable.

What planet are these guys really from? Oh yeah, no wonder they want to go to Mars. Geez.