Tonight's Republican debate

In 1962 the satircal play "Beyond the Fringe", written and performed primarily by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, was a sensation in London and then New York. While Rick Santorum is trying to take us back to that period, or even earlier, his effort is unfortunately not intended to be satire. That said, the phrase "beyond the fringe" does seem to be an apt description of Santorum's blossoming viewpoints. Conservative as a label does not do these ideas justice, libertarian definitely not, retrograde maybe, fascist in a stretch. Let's all rally around the Catholic Fascist Retrograde Party, the CFRP. Get out the confetti.

Tonight's debate should be a corker for those who have followed them, the ongoing soap opera or immorality play. There's no need here to chronicle all of the outrageous comments that Santorum has been gravitating toward now that he has momentum. There are too many to keep up with. Analyzing the fairly transparent subliminal messages that he is sending to his "base" is a depressing exercise.

The challenge for the other candidates is to confront him without alienating the muddled thinking part of the Republican party that supports him. Could Romney possibly risk being less conservative than Santorum on any issue. Gingrich probably will and Paul will say anything he wants.

At the last debate written about here, it was noted that Santorum's head seemed to be about to explode. I hope that there are doctors in the audience. There's one on the panel at least but he might be hit by debris.