The Mississippi GOP Is (Pardon The Expression) Committing Suicide

By Zamboni

A year ago, this is what Pundit World was saying about the Mississippi Senate race: There was no way that Thad Cochran was going to lose. It was a totally safe seat for which he would waltz to victory without even breaking a sweat. In fact, the Democrats may not even put up a credible candidate.

Today, what do we have — now that Cochran couldn't win his primary outright, and squeaked by in a runoff only by calling on Democratic votes, outraging his teabagger opponent (who won't go away)?

• The party is brutally split — thanks not just to the way Cochran won, but also to disgusting teabag tactics (invading a nursing home and taking a video of the dementia-afflicted Rose Cochran).
• The previously revered-in-Mississippi Barbour name is mud, and African-American voters got a GOTV practice run for November.
• The Democratic nominee, Travis Childers, would have been competitive in his own right; now, in the wake of this GOP mess, he may have an even better chance against Cochran.
• One of the local teabag leaders, implicated in the Rose Cochran nursing-home episode, killed himself.

And that's just the beginning! Still to come: To what extent will the party base in Mississippi stay home this fall? And what ripple effects will the Mississippi madness have on teabag turnout across the country?

We cats don't have those answers yet. But we look at this list and we see lots to PURR about. So we do.

(IMAGE: Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)