One more conservative ...

... who has begun to notice that the old GOP of Reagan and the Bushes no longer exists.

Kathleen Parker.

She's finally figured out, like poor ol' David Brooks, that the kooks are in charge.

The tick-tock of the debt-ceiling debate is too long for this space, but the bottom line is that the Tea Party got too full of itself with help from certain characters whose names you’ll want to remember when things go south. They include, among others, media personalities who need no further recognition; a handful of media-created “leaders,” including Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips and Tea Party Patriots co-founders Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler (both Phillips and Martin declared bankruptcy, yet they’re advising Tea Party Republicans on debt?); a handful of outside groups that love to hurl ad hominems such as “elite” and “inside the Beltway” when talking about people like Boehner when they are, in fact, the elite (FreedomWorks, Heritage Action, Club for Growth, National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity); and elected leaders such as Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, head of the Republican Study Committee, and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who grandstand and make political assertions and promises that are sheer fantasy.

Od course, if you are of the Tea Party ilk, there is no need to take this seriously. Just jam your fingers in your ears and chant "Lame Stream Media!" "Elites!" "Elites!"

Now I must get back to work because my school administration has imbibed too much of the zeitgeist.