This year, byallaccounts, Republicansareenergized to supporttheir candidates, especiallythroughactivists loyal to thegrassrootsconservativeTeaPartymovement.
In fact, alltheconservativeRepublicans, from Newt Gingrich to Pete Wilson, who have sought political advantage by exploiting white resentment should come and stand in the charred ruins of the New Liberty Baptist Church in Tyler, a tiny hamlet 10 miles east of Selma, and wonder if their coded phrases encouraged the arsonists.
One of the fears among Republicansall along has been that the party's conservative base, not considering a former governor of Massachusetts who once backed abortion rights and his own version of government health insurance to be one of their own, would drift away.