What if the GOP golden boys hadn't fallen in 2006?

[AltWorlder]

What if in '06, George Allen, Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, and Tom DeLay had not all fallen from grace in their various ways?  Would they have been the front runners in this year's primaries?

[Meeker]

George Allen: A front runner at first, but he would've made some sort of mistake (or series of them) and fizzled out in the end. I don't see how his presence would've done anything but take votes away from Huckabee and Romney.

Bill Frist: Might've tried, wouldn't have found any success. Most likely gone the way of Tommy Thompson.

Rick Santorum: Too many variables... you would have to assume a lot to have happened for him to be in a position to run. I can't really make a prediction because in order for him to be in that position he wouldn't be the politician we know and love.

Tom DeLay: Would not have run. The man did not have presidential ambitions.

[Person Man]

That's about right. The cat torturing thing wouldn't go well...not even for republicans. Allen could have "macaca'd" himself out of the race, but if didn't do it in 2006, I doubt he would have in 2008. Maybe Allen would be the nominee or the VP nom.


Santorum would be the Brownback that only assholes liked, which I don't think would have been much a liability amongst that entire crowd.

[AltWorlder]

What I don't understand is- how did it become so bad for the GOP this year?  The "golden boys" were okay with the Bush establishment, firmly in line with the Reagan conservative orthodoxy that's beloved by Free Republic movement conservatives, and all in the news.  Did they have no peers?  How did it get so bad that the presidential candidate with the least ideological issues was Thompson this year, followed by Duncan Hunter?