America hasn't had that many political parties, and the impending collapse of the Republican Party is a momentous thing. It's interesting that while its parent the Whig Party fell apart because of internal division over a single tangible policy--slavery--the GOP is tearing itself apart over some vague and every-shifting concept of ideological purity. It's like the successive dilution of homeopathy, this process of constantly cleansing the party of its "softest" RINOs.

And this is where it's gotten them: They've hollowed out the edifice of their party to the point where it no longer has any structural integrity. How bad does a party have to get before it can't find an ambitious politician to lead it?

And gawd, there's poor Bohner, who said he'd stick around until his replacement's been hired, now hoist on the petard and trapped in a hellish limbo of his own making.

It makes me smile.