Neutering If there has been a benefit of "The Great Republican crack-up of '08" beyond the grand entertainment it has been the effective emasculation of the hard right. Limbaugh and Coulter have both threatened to take their balls and go home if Romney doesn't win the nomination. Yesterday the other shoe dropped. Dr. James Dobson:

"But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can't vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country."

Does this sound like a public tantrum? Maybe the Doc shouldd re-read his own prescription from The Strong Willed Child; in particular the passage of how to get a dog off a toilet seat:

"I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to deal with it. The ONLY way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me "reason" with Mr. Freud.

What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!

Just in case you think that Dobson recounted this episode tongue-in-cheek....

"But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. Just as surely as a dog will occasionally challenge the authority of his leaders, so will a little child -- only more so." (emphasis Dobson's)

If I believed in Karma, I would say that Siggie is finally repaying the favor.  ¶ 6:39 AM