It might be worth joining the GOP just to be a Ted Nugent Republican

The Value Voters Summit is underway in Washington this weekend, and many political animals are looking forward to the straw poll which will be taken Saturday at the conference. While it's just a straw poll, and the 2012 presidential race is still pretty far down the campaign trail, some pundits think they will be able to read something significant in the tea leaves. One of those is Bernie Quigley of The Hill's Pundits Blog:

It should be useful in cutting through the ambiguity and denial about the various grassroots movements around the country. In a poll six months ago, Palin and Paul came in tied for second, behind Mitt Romney. Romney will come back as we get closer to 2012, but he should sink some this weekend because of his association with healthcare insurance as governor of Massachusetts.

The brooding ambiguity in the heartland has both Jeffersonian aspects (Ron Paul) and Jacksonian aspects (Sarah Palin). Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry registers in on both of these. All three might be categorized as Ted Nugent Republicans to varying degree and manifestation.

The straw poll at the Value Voters conference should give some indication about the Nuge Factor that is rattling some traditional Republicans. Nugent was the star of the show in some of the Texas "tea party" rallies on April 15.

"Ted Nugent Republican"... Hey, we like that. We like the sound of it so much that we're considering a change in our voter registration from independent to GOP just so we can call ourselves "Ted Nugent Republicans." The "Kill It and Grill It" rocker is one of Sarah's staunchest advocates.

Quigley continues:

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, was sent almost to seizures when a purely conservative crowd started chanting "Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul..." to the tune of "USA, USA, USA..." during one of his speeches. Paul is not a Republican, Graham shouted back at the group.

We never thought we would find ourselves in the position of defending Ron Paul, considering the unkind and incorrect things he has said about Palin supporters, but he's a heck of a lot more of a Republican than Lindsey the Liberal claims to be. 

Quigley suggests that Mitt Romney might just be the leader who can pull the various factions of the GOP together, and he cites Mitt's success in turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics as evidence. We're not seeing it. The failure of RomneyCare in Massachusetts doesn't bode well for him, and there are a significant number of conservatives in the GOP base who consider Romney too much of a changeling on the issues to trust him. And we don't see the Olympics as having much in common with a political party, either.

- JP