A true believer breaks with Shrub

Richard Viguerie has been dubbed the "funding father" of modern conservative strategy, having pioneered important tactics in computerized direct mail strategy in the 1970s and 1980s. He is considered the direct mail titan of the right. (ex Wikipedia)

Well, at long last, Viguerie has finally had enough of Shrub's shenanigans.

The patriarch of US conservatives has urged his followers to halt their financial support of the Republican Party and start an independent movement, signaling a major political shift that could result in heavy losses for the US ruling party in upcoming elections.

Richard Viguerie, who was instrumental in cementing the winning coalitions behind Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000, declared that conservatives were "downright fed up" with both the president and Republican-controlled Congress.

James Dobson, Patriarch of the Wingnut Christian Right has joined Viguerie and is singing the same tune:

"There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall," said Richard Viguerie, a conservative direct-mail pioneer

Mr. Viguerie also cited dissatisfaction with government spending, the war in Iraq and the immigration-policy debate…. "I can't tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership," Mr. Viguerie said. "I have never seen anything like it."

In the last several weeks, Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most influential Christian conservatives, has publicly accused Republican leaders of betraying the social conservatives who helped elect them in 2004. He has also warned in private meetings with about a dozen of the top Republicans in Washington that he may turn critic this fall unless the party delivers on conservative goals.

The Mandarin feels their pain. The real conservatives deserve their own political movement, and if that means seceding from the Bush-Cheney-Schwarzenegger-Giuliani Republicans, forming a third party and giving Congress back to the Democrats in 2006, well, sometimes you have to break eggs to make an omelet (or should the Mandarin have said "egg foo yung" 芙蓉蛋?)

And how about that Al Gore? We're talking tanned, rested and ready. He was elected President once, so the second time should be a piece of cake. Especially with people like Viguerie and Dobson sitting on their hands, or supporting fellow wingnut Tom Tancredo in a right-wing splinter party in 2008.