Are these insane birthers, tea-baggers, etc. helping or hurting the Republican party?

[$tevie]

cbelt3 wrote:
extremists hurt any political party. Ask the Democratic Party how much they liked Earth First ?

I think these nimrods are a welcome distraction for the Democratic Party- it enables the Democrats to paint all Republicans with the 'wingnut' brush and claim that that's all Republicans care about. And as a result they are damaging the ability of the Republican Party to do anything even marginally useful.

To these noisy fools, I would simply like to say :

i totally disagree. The GOP has done nothing whatsoever to discourage nor disavow the kooks. There's no way on earth that you can blame the Democrats for the fact that the Republicans have let the lunatics run their asylum. The ones who do attempt to speak out have been promptly crucified by Limbaugh and slink back into the fold.