Virginia Republicans — the beginning of the end.

I can barely contain my glee over Virginia Republicans’ reaction to the new candidate for governor.

For months, the race was two-man — presumptive Democratic nominee Lt. Governor Tim Kaine and presumptive Republican nominee then-Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. Then, just before the beginning of Virginia’s annual legislative session, little-known Republican George Fitch stepped up to the plate. Fitch promotes himself as a “Reagan Republican,” believes in smaller government, and has garnered the support of the radicals at Club for Growth, whatever that’s worth. Kilgore, feeling this heat from the right, promptly sold his soul to Grover Norquist, moving to the right to keep Fitch from getting any traction. In the midst of this, though, was a persistent concern that another Republican might run, a centrist Republican that would pull Kilgore to the left.

Well, it happened. On Friday, Sen. Russ Potts announced his candidacy for governor. Unlike Fitch, though, he’s not angling for the Republican nomination. He calls himself an “independent Republican” — a Republican who has no interest in the nomination. Radical Republicans have been desperately trying to portray Sen. Potts as a Democrat in Republicans’ clothing, beginning with the Kilgore campaign, who put out a high-larious press release to that effect, declaring that “Russ Potts will only take votes away from Tim Kaine’s base of supporters.” The Kilgore camp has been instrumental in moving the Virginia Republican Party way, way to the radical right, and they’re trying to pretend that this isn’t a problem for average Republicans. So, of Potts’ candidacy, the declared: “What we have here today is not a split within the Republican Party, but rather a colossal fissure among the High Tax/Big Government Spending coalition.”

As Raising Kaine points out, any attempt to portray Potts as anything other than a Republican is rubbish. One need look no further than Project Vote Smart to see that he votes in line with Republicans. For the 2004 session, he has a 0% with NARAL, a 0% from Americans United for Separation of Church and State (for ’00-’02), a 33% from the League of Conservation Voters for ’03, a 65% from the Family Foundation of Virginia for ’03, a 0% from the National Organization for Women for ’00, and an A for NRA in ’99. (All ratings are the most recent available.) The dude’s a Republican, no way around it. He’s a classic conservative Republican, and I’d no sooner vote for him than I’d vote for Kilgore or Fitch.

So, now there’s a four-way race — Democrat Tim Kaine and these three other guys fighting for the Republican slice of the pie. Kilgore, the leading man among the Republicans, is jockeying for position, trying to appear far to the right of Potts, but not too far, so he has to make Potts look like a Republican. And he wants to occupy the most radical-right territory, so he’s tossing some red meat to the Norquist-followers and the free-lunchers, proposing massive increases in spending without proposing any tax increases to fund those increases. In short, Kilgore is trying to be everything to everyone, and it’s a losing proposition.

But here’s the part I love. Here’s the part that has me so damned gleeful.

The Virginia Republicans, from Kilgore on down, are so afraid of the elephant in their living room that is their party split, and the radical right has so taken over the party, that they’re moving so far to the right that they’re telling the centrist and Joe Republican masses that make up the majority of Virginia: “You’re Democrats, as far as we’re concerned.”

If Sen. Russ Potts is a Democrat, so is 65% of Virginia.

Now, if this were an isolated incident, I’d figure “hey, it’s just a boneheaded campaign move.” But it’s not. This attempt to re-center the Republican Party so far to the right, and this practice of punishing Republicans is standard for the Virginia Republicans. As Bob Gibson wrote on January 1st, House Speaker Bill Howell has made an art of screwing over fellow Republicans, using a combination of lying and back-stabbing that comes of being drunk on power, punishing any Republican who refuses to toe the ever-farther-right party line.

The lynching of Sen. Russ Potts is yet another reinforcement of this message being sent to representatives in Virginia: if you’re a classically-conservative Republican, you have no place in the Republican Party. The first to get this message will be House Republicans, who will form their own caucus, turn independent, or negotiate sweet deals with Democrats for that eight-seat switch that will make us the majority again. The second to get this message will be Virginia Republicans, who will become increasingly disaffected with the state party, with their anomie leading to more and more RINOs (Republicans In Name Only, as Virginia Republicans derisively refer to just about any Republican to the left of Grover Norquist), voting for centrist Democrats like Governor Mark Warner and Lt. Governor Tim Kaine without so much as a twinge of guilt. This is what comes of making the definition of the Republican Party more and more narrow every year — alienation of the majority and inevitable defeat.

And I don’t mind writing this here. This could be the front-page story on every paper in the state, and the vocal Republicans would declare it to be media bias, a story planted by the all-powerful Democrats, or perhaps a conspiracy of the “MSM” (“mainstream media” — if I start writing “MSM” without irony, somebody shoot me). They’re so hopped up on their own Kool-Aid that they believe these things. It doesn’t matter how many people point out the folly of their strategy — they won’t listen.

I said it in December, and I’ll say it again: The shift has begun. Let me be the first to say “welcome.” We’re a big tent party. We’d love to have you. I recommend that those considering joining do so as early as possible, as we’ll feel particularly indebted to those of you who make the jump now, rather than later. We look forward to working with you.