Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Ricardo B. Brazziell AMERICAN-STATESMAN

By throwing the red meat of secession to this state's conservative fringe, Gov. Rick Perry made Texas the butt of jokes around the world.

Perry says, accurately, that he never suggested that Texas should secede, though he still says it legally could. Which it can't, of course. Americans settled that with an awful, bloody war that ended 144 years ago.

The governor probably doesn't really believe that himself, but he loves the attention from the far right wing of the Republican Party. Dressed like one of the characters from the Republic of Texas separatist group, Perry's attendance at the anti-tax tea parties this week was a huge embarrassment for the state.

It is hard to take Perry seriously when he struts around in a gimme cap and spouts nonsense in a cynical ploy to attract attention and votes. Texas isn't going to secede — as much as the rest of the country might wish it would — and Perry knows that.

But the polls show him trailing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, his rival for governor in next spring's Republican primary, and he is desperate to gain ground. A Rasmussen Poll this week showed Hutchison with a 67 percent favorable rating to Perry's 55 percent.

As long as the governor is playing catch-up to the senator, Texans can expect more of this week's silliness from Perry. What seems so confounding is that by pandering to the right-wing fringe, Perry is surely losing ground with the party mainstream that he will need to win next March.

Nationally, as in Texas, the Republican Party seems to have lost its way. Barack Obama's election last fall has unhinged the GOP, and the party is now hostage to conservative talk show hosts who spew hate from the outer limits of political absurdity. It is the Rush Limbaughs of the country who applaud Perry's outlandish palaver and who are driving the GOP into the political wasteland.

Republicans and Democrats alike can decry the huge amounts of money rung up by Obama's stimulus package, fret about the debt we are handing our children and worry about taxes. But most don't go around muttering about secession like it's a real possibility. It only makes those who do, including the governor, look ridiculous.

The tea parties in Texas and elsewhere were ginned up by Fox News and the rabid talk show hosts. But that doesn't mean there is no legitimacy to the concerns of those who took time out of their lives to protest. Many Americans share some of their concerns.

But when that very public conversation drifts into the fantasy of secession, the actual issues are compromised. That's why the sensible leaders in the Republican Party should take control. The country needs two strong political parties to parse the issues of the day, to hammer out the compromises that make us a strong nation.

When one party — either one — is captured by a radical fringe, it suffers, and the country is weaker for it. If the national GOP follows Perry down the bizarre path he has taken in his desperate attempt to attract votes, Democrats will be in power for a long time.