Is the Republican Party in its "Last Throws"?

Bush's poll numbers continue to sink as he and his political allies cling stubbornly to their failed dreams of world domination.

Released: December 08, 2006

Bush Job Approval: 30%

President slips to all-time low in the Zogby Poll as key demographic groups jump ship

The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30%, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31% approval rating he dropped to in early June. ...

... Support for the President waned in key demographic groups, the Zogby poll shows. Among all Republicans, just 60% gave him a positive job rating, while 39% gave him negative marks. Just 9% of Democrats and 22% of political independents gave him good marks for his work. Among married respondents – typically a group who favors Republicans – just 35% said Bush was doing a positive job. Among men, another favorable GOP demographic, just 31% gave him positive marks, while 69% gave him a negative rating. Even among stalwart Born Again respondents, just 43% had positive ratings for the President on his overall job performance. ... (full article)

It appears that the Bush Administrations incompetence in handling the occupation of Iraq is beginning to tear the Republican Party apart:

Dec. 9, 2006, 11:13PM
Report reveals widening GOP division on Iraq
Republican right decries Iraq Study Group suggestions

By JOHN M. BRODER and ROBIN TONER
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The release of the report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group last week exposed deep fissures among Republicans over how to manage a war that many fear will haunt their party — and the nation — for years to come.

A document that many in Washington had hoped would pave the way for a bipartisan compromise on Iraq instead drew sharp condemnation from the right, with hawks saying it was a wasted effort that advocated a shameful American retreat.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page described the report as a "strategic muddle," Richard Perle called it "absurd," Rush Limbaugh labeled it "stupid," and The New York Post portrayed the leaders of the group, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic member of Congress, as "surrender monkeys."

Republican moderates clung to the report, mindful of the drubbing the party received in last month's midterm elections largely because of Iraq. They said they hoped President Bush would adopt the group's principal recommendations and begin the process of disengagement from the long and costly war. But White House officials who conducted a preliminary review of the report said they had concluded that many of the proposals were impractical or unrealistic.

The divisions could make it more difficult for Republicans to coalesce on national security policy and avoid a bitter intraparty fight going into the 2008 campaign. ...(full article)