Mort Kondracke says the Republican Party can be as popular as he is if they'll simply stop listening to those darn conservatives,

How can the Republican Party rebound? The first step would be to quit letting Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham set its agenda.

...But step 1 is to fire Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP.

In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk-show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies - over immigration, brain-damage victim Terri Schiavo and same-sex marriage - that have branded the party as troglodyte.

The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 - Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and "seculars."

Immigration scarcely was an issue during the fall campaign. But the damage was done over the past two years as the radio screamers roused the rabble, who then beat on GOP members of Congress, presidential candidates and even the Bush administration not just to control the border but treat undocumented residents as felons.

You know what really drives me up a wall about guys like Mort Kondracke and David Brooks? They're dull, uncreative, untalented, utterly forgettable pundits who couldn't fill a phone booth, but because they happened to know the right people, they've become famous. In other words, Kondracke and Brooks are the Republican equivalents of "Kato" Kaelin.

That being said, let me translate the excerpt from the Kondracke column above; What the GOP needs to do is be more like me: a lukewarm pile of filler that inspires neither passion nor enmity.

You've also got to love the left-wing talking points that he echoes: according to Kondracke, conservatives don't have their own opinions about things like Terri Schiavo, illegal immigration, and same sex marriage -- they just ape whatever they're told by talk show hosts -- and of course, same sex marriage must be a loser, even though marriage between a man and a woman is 30-for-30 at the polls so far and a majority of both Hispanics and blacks went against gay marriage in California this time around.

Then there's the perfectly ridiculous idea that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham set the agenda of the Republican Party. Really? That's funny, because I remember a guy named Bush in the White House -- who bent over backwards to cooperate with the Democrats, expanded the size of government, ran large deficits, and tried to push the Dubai Port Deal, Harriet Miers, and amnesty for illegal immigrants -- over the loud protests of people like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Ingraham.

I also seem to remember a fellow by the name of McCain -- you know, older gentleman, served in Vietnam, white hair -- who won the nomination even though people like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Ingraham said it would be a disaster. You know who did like him though? The Mort Kondracke and David Brooks wing of the Republican Party that was thrilled that they finally had their champion running as the party's nominee. Then, after eight years of big government Republicanism and John McCain, these same people want to blame the very people who pointed out the political pitfalls the GOP was stepping into almost every step of the way?

Please. Give. Us. A. Break.

The title was swiped from my buddy Karol at Alarming News.