DO WE HAVE MULTIPLE CRAZY ABSOLUTIST WINGNUT PARTIES NOW?

This is interesting, although I suppose it was foreseeable:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul mocked Liz Cheney's newly announced Senate campaign Tuesday, questioning her Wyoming residency in a barbed statement.

"When I heard Liz Cheney was running for Senate I wondered if she was running in her home state of Virginia," Paul said....

Asked last week about the brewing matchup, Paul told POLITICO he viewed [incumbent senator Mike] Enzi as a solid conservative.

Paul and Cheney stand at opposite poles of the conservative national security debate, with Cheney supporting a hawkish foreign policy and Paul openly questioning the value of American military action overseas, and advocating for cuts to the defense budget....

I picked up a strain of disgruntlement last night in a couple of Free Republic threads about the Cheney announcement:

She isn't trying to oust a Democrat, she's trying to oust a Republican. Are only a few powerful families supposed to control the country?

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yea, great, another GOP who wants ot get in all wars and others business, put our troops at risk while being libral on the homosexual agenda and cross dressing front.

Just another elitist ruling class who will take the side of Graham and MCcain and dopes will vote because of her name and the letter R

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We can NOT afford to further extend the stranglehold these globalist/statist power elites have over the Republican Party. Already we've compromised watch too many (R)'s crossing the aisle and NOT holding the line on such a crucial issue as Amnesty.

There are several things going on here. One, obviously, is the huge gap on foreign policy between the Paulites and the neocons. But in addition to that, some in the rank-and-file have clearly started believing their own rhetoric about wanting to throw all the old guard out, regardless of party. And some are angry about compromises on social issues (Liz Cheney thinks gay marriage should be left to the states) and immigration. Basically, they don't want any Republican to compromise on anything, ever, and if you haven't compromised yet, they're looking for signs that you might (and being part of the old guard might be such a sign). In addition, it seems that some of the crazies have started to become wary of Cheneyesque neocon interventionism not because they're Paulites, but because (a) they think McCain and Graham are RINOs on other issues and McCain and Graham are among the most bellicose Republicans holding office, and (b) Obama's foreign policy is muscular in many respects, so if he's for it, they're against it.

I also think the wingers are so used to hating their enemies and finding fault that they've become insatiable -- hating liberals and Democrats isn't enough, so they're scratching their needle tracks and constantly looking for the next hate-fix. They'll hate their own if nothing else is available.

I wish this added up to a real conservative crack-up, but I think it's just a bit of a muddle, with a real schism as a possibility eventually, though probably not soon. But we can hope.