The Pretty Hate Machine Blows A Gasket

John Santore keeps score on the continual circular firing squad over in Wingnutland.

As Eric Boehlert pointed out earlier today, a significant fissure is opening up on the Right. The increasing influence of extremists like Fox News' Glenn Beck and radio host Rush Limbaugh has shaken more mainstream conservatives who are searching for a new set of leaders -- and the conservative establishment is lashing out. Consider some of the recent comments from prominent conservative media personalities and elected officials:

• Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks describing Beck, Limbaugh, and radio talker Mark Levin as "loons" who are "harmful for America."
• Former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon denouncing Levin's "jaw-dropping hate language about the president."
• MSNBC commentator and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough blasting Limbaugh's cheers after Chicago lost its Olympic bid: "Republicans have gone off the deep end"

These are just a few examples of a serious trend. Right-wing media figures are now routinely attacking each other's tactics and relevancy. On Friday, Brooks (nonsensically) dedicated an entire column to explaining why conservative media leaders like Beck and Limbaugh are not worthy of attention. He argued that we are once again witnessing "the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche -- even of the Republican Party." It's a point he made several weeks earlier, when he said that "[i]f the Republican Party is sane, they will say no to these people." Beck, in turn, responded by reading Brooks' editorial on the air and mocking the idea that he was the overlord of thoughtless, right-wing radio audiences who will "kill people because we tell you to." Feeling defensive, Glenn?

It's starting to get bad over there. The Wingers actually thought they had finished off Obama and the Democrats during Town Hall Blitz, but it all started falling apart with their One Point Nine Million Invisible Teabagger March and since then it's gone all to hell.

With the dim realization that health care reform is going to pass and that America is laughing at their rampant stupidity with the whole birther/tenther/militia idiocy, some on the right are beginning to desert the ship. Nobody likes being on the losing team, especially when the team continues to take no opportunity to correct why it is losing.