Maddow chronicles self-destruction of the headless Republican Party

On her show Wednesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow detailed how poor of a shape the Republican Party was in, pointing out the various ways the GOP was at battle with itself.

"What is going on with the Republican Party right now?" she wondered. "I mean, who is in charge? Who is going to or who is trying to right this ship? This has been going on for a long time now, and the thing I think is newsworthy right now is that it seems to be getting worse and not better over time."

"It is not uncommon for the losing party to go through a round of soul searching after a bad election cycle," Maddow added. "Nobody expected the Republicans to spring back to their feet immediately after losing the White House by 3 million votes, after losing the House by 1 million votes, after losing two addition seats in the Senate, nobody expected them to be on fire by now, but right now it is less that they are on fire than they are engulfed in flames and they are the ones who have lit them. How long does this go on for?"

Maddow observed that the in-fighting within the Republican Party did not appear to being ebbing, and might actually be getting worse.

Like many other conservative groups, the Tea Party Patriots recently sent out an email blasting Republican strategist Karl Rove over his new Conservative Victory Project. The email portrayed the long-time Republican as a Nazi officer. Gingrich jumped on the Rove-bashing bandwagon as well, saying the Conservative Victory Project was a "terrible idea."

This year, Republicans again decided to have two separate responses to Obama's State of the Union address. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) delivered the official Republican response, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered the tea party Republican response. Maddow also spotted the division elsewhere, noting tea party Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has faced criticism from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other Republicans. In addition, a potential tea party candidate has already emerged to challenge Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the next primary race.

The troubles for the GOP didn't end there. Maddow noted Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal had called on Republicans to stop being the "stupid party" and Republicans were having trouble fielding a Senate candidate in Massachusetts. Republican members of Congress have also mistaken satirical jokes for news.

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