While yesterday I focused on the fact that the Republican Party is reeling, today - thanks to the latest outburst from Glenn Beck - I'd like to remind everyone of something equally important: This is who they are. The face of Beck, Ann Coulter, George Allen and so many other right-wing bigots, misogynists and low-down assholes is the face of the Republican Party. The face and, to be sure, the heart and soul. Take a good look, America, because the smiling faces you see on the right belie a cold, dark interior far more accurate than outward appearances. And remember what you see, because obscuring the truth about themselves is the only thing keeping the Republican Party from being marginalized to permanent minority status at the far fringes of society.

When Beck calls Hillary Clinton a "stereotypical bitch", he's speaking for the party. When Coulter calls John Edwards a "faggot", she's speaking for the party. When Allen calls a man of Indian descent "Macaca", he's speaking for the party. When Bill Donohue says things like "The gay community has yet to apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done," he's speaking for the party. When Bill O'Reilly calls the victims of Hurricane Katrina "drug-addicted" and "thugs", he's speaking for the party. When Bill Bennett says things like "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," he's speaking for the party. When Pat Robertson calls for Hugo Chavez's assassination, he's speaking for the party. When Brit Hume's first thoughts after the London terror attacks was "Hmmm, time to buy," he's speaking for the party. And when John Gibson wishes those attacks on France, he's speaking for the party.

Get the picture?

Make no mistake, these are the comments of terrible, terrible people. But not just any people. Prominent conservatives. People held in high regard* and who have repeatedly been given a soapbox from which to spout their dangerous, hateful rhetoric. People given the tremendous opportunity to speak both to and for other people. You and I don't have the same opportunity, nor do we have the same platform. Our words don't appear on cable news, on nationally syndicated radio or in national newspapers. Theirs do. So the next time a mindless Republican asks a progressive to answer for the words of a seeming nobody, remember that the hate speech you're hearing from the right isn't coming from a corresponding seeming nobody. It's coming from people of prominence. Not people of character, mind you, but people of prominence. And people whose warped sentiments speak for millions of their fellow travelers.

The truly sad thing about the Becks, Coulters and Allens of the world is that there's a little bit of each of them in every Republican. Every self-styled conservative caught defending their statements or, at the very least, looking the other way while they spew their bile is forgiving them for poisoning the debate. For cheapening it. For lowering the bar. For appealing to the lowest-common denominator. For pandering to the Republican base's very worst tendencies and beliefs. This is who they are: Self-styled moral scolds with a bit of an asshole problem. It's not that they simply never practice what they preach. It's that their preaching is an overt effort to mask their inner depravity. For today's Republicans, the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" couldn't be truer. Only now, with the cover rapidly deteriorating, the book itself is there for everyone to see.

* Not by me. I think they're all worthless assholes.