So they launched offensives on Michael J Fox's Parkinson's disease, Jim Webb's novels and gay marriage. They required new fields of combat - not the Iraq war, certainly not convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, convicted Representative Duke Cunningham, investigated Representative Mark Foley or indicted House majority leader Tom DeLay. The Bush administration and the Republican Congress could not defend themselves on their public record and urgently needed to change the subject. These self-destructive performances were hardly peripheral to the campaign but instead at the heart of it. ![]() ![]() Their prevarications were easily penetrated derision hurled at their targets backfired hypocrisy was fully exposed. They were unable to shield themselves through their usual practices. ![]() ![]() For weeks before election-day, prominent figures on the right threw themselves into their culture war only to be left in the trenches battered, scorned and disoriented. The cultural crack-up of conservatism preceded the final political result.
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