Rethug Quitters

Two Rethuglicans are announcing their intent to back away from the political fray:
Former Speaker Dennis "Super Size Me" Hastert will not be completing his term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Sen. Sam "Who?" Brownback will be dropping out of the Presidential race, not that anyone noticed he was in it to begin with.

Brownback, Huckabee Look for "Deliverance" in Iowa Straw Poll

Saturday's Iowa Rethug straw poll could be a make-or-break time for two candidates ardently wooing the same Rethug Christian right - Sen. Sam Brownback and former Gov. Mike Huckabee. Iowa has more evangelical Christians, proportionately, than any State outside of the South. Both men, who favor Genesis (the Book, not the band) over evolution, are low on money and need to finish second or third in the straw poll in order to maintain any movement.

The struggle has turned increasingly nasty between the two, with a Huckabee supporter recently e-mailing two Baptist Brownback supporters telling them to switch their support to Huckabee because he's a fellow Baptist. Brownback is a convert to Roman Catholicism. Ah, yes, you can always count on the Rethugs to revert to the lowest common denominators of fear and emotion in the course of the campaign! Willard "Mutt/Muff/Mousse" Romney's Mormonism has already been made an issue in Rethug evangelical circles (see Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land). Will Giuliani's free-wheeling form of Catholicism be next up?

(Photo: Sen. Brownback and Gov. Huckabee in friendlier times.)