Conservatives are allowed to call anyone fascists

One of the least appealing features of the modern Conservative movement is its habbit of calling people names. Its not just Ann Coulter who accuses liberals of being 'godless' and guilty of 'treason', Lewinsky scandal plumber Johah Goldberg has now got in on the act with 'Liberal Fascism' an extended treatise based on the falacy of the excluded middle.

So it was only a matter of time before the F-word was being flung around in the Republican primaries. The Amercian Conservative avoids using the word itself in their cover story Declaring Forever War, they just dress up Rudy in a brown shirt and jackboots and leave the reader to make the connection themselves.

A better F word for Rudy would be flake. His 'foreign policy' while mayor of New York City was certainly not consistent in opposition to terrorism. Yassir Arafat gets kicked out of concerts but Gerry Adams gets a humanitarian award. The fact that the IRA and PLO were allied for many years and taught each other terrorist techniques was probably not lost on Rudy, the point was to pander to the Jewish and Irish voters who didn't.

The Republicans have turned up quite a field. While the vast majority of Democrats would be happy with any of the top three contenders in the primary, the Republican race is the choice of the lesser of five evils. This is demonstrated by the extreme volatility of the Democratic polls, Hilary's national lead can vary from twenty points ahead of Obama to barely ahead depending on recent news. The Republican polls show a much more consistent trend. The surges of Thompson and Huckabee were not driven by a liking for either candidate but a dislike for Romney and Giuliani. Now that they are finding out about Huckabee, McCain is rising again.