Conservative icon says the GOP has become “goofy”

Posted by AzBlieMeanie:

Not the word I would have used; "goofy" implies silly and is benign. Radical, extreme, and dangerous are far more accurate descriptions. Maybe he had the Birthers im mind.

Richard Posner, a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, has long been considering a leading conservative legal thinker and is an icon of the right. Even he has had enough of the modern-day GOP. Richard Posner Drifting To The Left?:

[I]n an interview with NPR yesterday, Richard Posner said:

“There’s been a real deterioration in conservative thinking. And that has to lead people to re-examine and modify their thinking. ”I’ve become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy.”

Although Posner has never been considered a party-line conservative, he was a Reagan nominee considered ideologically solid enough to be a possible Supreme Court candidate in the Bush administration——albeit not enough to actually be nominated. Posner also has a huge amount of influence on American legal thought as one of the most widely cited judges and legal scholars in the country. It’s not that Posner’s comments will sway votes, after all he’s not exactly a celebrity. But the people paying attention to him will shape the direction of the law for decades to come. And if a leading conservative thinker has lost respect for the GOP, that’s worth noticing.

UPDATE: Apparently Judge Posner was more illuminating than this one quote. Crooksandliars.com has the audio file, Reagan-Appointed Judge: Republican 'Lunatics' Made Me Less Conservative:

In an interview with NPR on Thursday Judge Richard Posner said that "right-wingers" were making a serious mistake by attacking Chief Justice John Roberts for siding with liberals and upholding President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

"Because if you put [yourself] in his position, what's he supposed to think?" Posner wondered. "That he finds his allies to be a bunch of crackpots? Does that help the conservative movement? I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts? All the sudden you find out that the people you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press."

"What do you do? Do you become more conservative? Or do you say, 'What am I doing with this crowd of lunatics?' Right? Maybe you have to re-examine your position."

He added: "I've become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy."