You KNOW Things Are Bad for the GOP

when somebody like Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah faces a primary challenge from somebody even further to the right than he.

Hatch might not make it past the June primary. That would be something:

With just 32 more votes out of the 3,908 cast, he would have cleared the magic 60 percent threshold and secured the nomination for a seventh Senate term on the spot. Instead, Hatch now has a date in the June 26 primary with Dan Liljenquist, a Tea Party activist and former state senator.

This marks the first time since he won his seat in 1976 that Hatch will face a primary, and he enters the race as the favorite. But the convention results point to a restive and volatile Republican electorate. Hatch spent more than $5 million in the run-up to Saturday’s vote, and yet the little-known Liljenquist still ended up with 41 percent. It’s absolutely possible that Hatch’s career will come to an end in June.

His struggle for survival is, in part, a reflection of the risk any politician takes in staying around too long. Hatch is 78 years old and has been in office since 1977. A simple desire for something new and different surely accounts for some of resistance he’s confronting.

Hard to believe he has been in the Senate that long. It's even harder to believe the far right trajectory the GOP has undergone since the mid-seventies once the moderate and liberal wings of the GOP were marginalized and ultimately died off. It wasn't long before Hatch himself was considerated a "moderate" though he hadn't changed all that much.