As C&L's Jon Perr wrote earlier this year, today's "tea partiers", otherwise known as the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, which seems to be about all that remains of them right now, would have considered Ronald Reagan a RINO, or Republican in name only.
That didn't stop Tennessee Representative and one of my least favorite flame throwers Marsha Blackburn from praising St. Ronnie at the Republican Leadership Conference this weekend as the one who's "values" they should "coalesce around."
BLACKBURN: Well it is absolutely fantastic to be here with you in New Orleans for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and I am thrilled that we are holding this during the centennial of Ronald Reagan's birth.
Those values that he coalesced around, faith, family, freedom, hope, opportunity; those are the values that he took with him to Washington in 1980. Those are the values that we need to take back to Washington today. And we need to remember that those are the values that need to be in the White House in November 2012 and we need to get out there and win this one for the Gipper!
Whoo-hooo! Let's win one for St. Ronnie! I'm not holding my breath for anyone in our corporate media to ever ask any of them about whether their patron saint would survive a GOP primary today now that the John Birch Society, libertarian, extreme right wing of their party has apparently become the mainstream.
