I really don't see my party having been taken over by nutters. The thing is about nutters, of both the left and right, is that they make a lot of noise. That does not mean that they are the men behind the curtain. If the religious right controlled the GOP, Huckabee would have won the nomination. He didn't come close.
In my experience, the issues that do tend to push folks a bit towards the aisles are abortion, guns, gays and war and peace, with abortion and war really being the ones that fuel the fires.
Here is a link to the Dionne article by the way. He isn't suggesting that the kooks (
e.g., the Obama is a Muslim crowd) are taking over the GOP either, just that McCain should ostracize them. Ayers is fair comment in any event, not kookery; it's just ineffective politically in my opinion at this point, for reasons I have elucidated.
