Poor Marilyn Musgrave. She's been sent off to the wilderness with the rest of the GOP -- but she's not done embarrassing herself or her party. According to Politico, the former Republican Rep. has now joined forces with a right wing, anti-choice organization called The Susan B. Anthony List and she's out to reclaim seats for Republican candidates by attacking what she calls "the worst liberals in Congress."

She recently sent out a tersely worded, stunning four-page (four-page!) missive reeking of bitterness, with underlined sentences, paragraphs in bold and even a postscript from the letterhead of “Congressman Marilyn Musgrave” announcing her latest campaign: the Votes Have Consequences grass-roots project that aims to “expose pro-abortion politicians.”

She mentions several times that people have spent a vast amount of money (“roughly $18 million”) to eject her from her seat. She quotes the Bible: “The truth shall set you free.” She then asks people to donate any denomination of money ($25 to $5,000) so that they can “spread the truth about [liberals’] destructive agendas, drag down their approval ratings, force them to publicly defend socialism, authoritarian gun-grabbing, gay marriage, infanticide and everything else they vote for in Washington, and, ultimately, on Nov. 2, 2010, we will take their jobs away from them.” Read on...

Obviously, Musgrave lands on the Cheney/Limbaugh side of the GOP, but the article also touches on the growing civil war raging within the dying political party:

She even sneaks in a dig at the RNC. She adds in the letter that she wants to “attack liberal candidates who deserve to be attacked and to defend conservatives when the Republican National Committee is nowhere to be found.”

Some Republicans are in a really severe state of denial about the ass-kicking they just received Great Repudiation. To wit, Colorado's Marilyn Musgrave:

Bitterness generated by the bruising battle between Betsy Markey and Marilyn Musgrave apparently lingers days after voters decided the winner of the 4th Congressional District.

Incumbent Republican Musgrave, who lost to Democrat Markey by a 56 to 44 percent margin Tuesday, has yet to call and congratulate Markey on her win.

Musgrave also hasn't conceded the race, said Markey spokesman Ben Marter. "She has yet to admit defeat," he said. "It's a little bizarre."

Calls to Musgrave's campaign and congressional office went unanswered Friday.

Ah yes, we remember Musgrave well: She was one of the co-sponsors of a Federal Marriage Amendment, and once declared that gay marriage "is the most important issue that we face today."

Musgrave's residence on Planet Bizarro appears to be permanent.

"The communications director for Bush-Cheney, Nicolle Devenish, said Kerry miscalculated the impact of his remarks and now is "backpedaling from what is a crass, below-the-belt political strategy to attack the vice president's daughter."

"We're all God's children," he said. "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice." -- John Kerry, 3rd Pres. debate.

Andrew Sullivan (here and elsewhere) and his correspondent, Marshall Wittman (here), say what needs to be said about the GOP's odd treatment of Mary Cheney's sexual orientation as something to be ashamed of, and its hilarious offensive against John Kerry as an apparent homophobe.

Sullivan's site also has a wonderful run-down of all the conservatives who have suddenly become charter members, so to speak, of the Human Rights Campaign. It's obvious what's going on here: The only way to salvage a "win" out of Wednesday's debate is to recast it as an occasion where Kerry made a horrendous gaffe. And the Bush surrogates in the right-wing press are doing everything they can to make that happen.

Alas, they seem to be doing a very effective job of it. Not one reporter writing a story about this blow-up seems willing to ask the Bush campaign or the Cheneys why it's offensive of Kerry to describe Mary Cheney -- in a positive sense -- as a lesbian. At least Gary Bauer is honest enough to admit that it will hurt Bush among rural conservatives for them to know a member of the Republican ticket fathered a daughter who plays for the other team.

I know we're supposed to be all bipartisan and forgiving and stuff in the wake of the Great Repudiation, but sometimes you've gotta sit back and smell the schadenfreude. Case in point: Colorado Republican Marilyn Musgrave:

Two weeks after the brutal loss, Musgrave still hasn’t called her opponent to concede or to congratulate the victor, as is not only textbook but also mannerly to do.

Moreover, Musgrave’s ill manners bleed into her own team. Rumor has it she still — 14 days later — hasn’t even thanked her campaign staff. (Again, textbook.)

Musgrave press secretary Joseph Brettell tells us: “It’s a campaign matter, and I have no further comment.”

And as for Markey, her campaign manger, Anne Caprara, who is in town this week with her boss for orientation, tells us of Musgrave: “No, she hasn’t called to concede, but we’re moving forward.”

Though the Markey team doesn’t plan on stopping by Musgrave’s office while in town, eventually the two camps will have to touch base — just in terms of transitioning. But curiously, more rumors abound that no one has seen or talked to Musgrave since the brutal loss; she’s all but disappeared.

One of the joys of this past election was seeing the final exit of characters like Musgrave from the nation's political stage. This was, after all, the woman who tried to have Michael Schiavo arrested merely for showing up to one of her events.

My favorite Musgrave moment, though, came with the above video, which shows Musgrave critics trying to get her to answer their questions. Not only does Musgrave ignore them as her entourage shoves the questioners out of the way; but at the end, some of her supporters confront the questioners and physically intimidate them by shoving them and grabbing their mike.

Congratulations to Betsy Markey. She did the whole nation a service.