The unkillable zombie of the George W. Bush Republican

Cotton’s victory shows, first and foremost, that the Rand Paul, war-skeptic wing of the party remains a small, marginalized faction in the GOP. When it comes right down to it, Republicans still swoon over blustering bellicosity, no matter how asinine it is. Mr. Harvard — the man Politico dubbed “the last, best hope of the GOP hawks” — actually warned ominously on the campaign trail that ISIS might collaborate with Mexican drug cartels and infiltrate the U.S. by crossing its southern border. And the good people of Arkansas didn’t laugh him right off the stage.

This is what the Republicans have been reduced to. Reflexively committed to demonstrating their superior toughness at every turn, the GOP and its undead neocon pseudo-intellectuals have been driven by Barack Obama to stake out increasingly ludicrous positions. This is a president, after all, who has killed Osama bin Laden, eagerly embraced drone strikes, kept Guantanamo open for business, thrown temper tantrums over national security leaks, bombed Libya and toppled Gaddafi, and signed up the United States for an open-ended battle against ISIS. No wonder Cotton (R-Weekly Standard) felt the need to come up with more creative military targets.