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Oh goodie. Pass the popcorn. The religious right is none too happy now that Willard has lost the presidential election and wanting to push the party even further to the right -- GOP civil war: Herman Cain calls for third party:

It’s been less than 24 hours since the polls closed and already the first shots in an emerging civil war within the conservative movement are being fired. Right-leaning pundits have been taking turns beating up on Mitt Romney and blaming him for the loss last night. Donald Trump just tweeted, “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.” And GOP leaders are already taking to the barricades on either side of the divide, which basically comes down to this question: Were Romney and the GOP too conservative or not conservative enough?

Steve Schmidt, a top Republican strategist who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, invoked the term on MSNBC this morning. “When I talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, what I mean is, it’s time for Republican elected leaders to stand up and to repudiate this nonsense [of the extreme right wing], and to repudiate it directly,” he said.

But on the other side of the fight, Herman Cain, the former presidential candidate who still has a robust following via his popular talk radio program and speaking tours, today suggested the most clear step to open civil war: secession. Appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program this afternoon, Cain called for a large faction of Republican Party leaders to desert the party and form a third, more conservative party.

“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country. Not Ron Paul and the Ron Paulites. No. We need a legitimate third party to challenge the current system that we have, because I don’t believe that the Republican Party … has the ability to rebrand itself,” Cain said.

Fischer, a social conservative leader, noted that he predicted this summer that if Mitt Romney loses, evangelical conservatives would start a third party. “If Barack Obama wins this election the Republican Party as we know it is finished, it is dead, it is toast,” Fischer said in September at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. Read on...

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From this Tuesday morning's Washington Journal on C-SPAN, apparently Bloody Bill Kristol is tired of Republicans having to deal with Ron Paul for his stance in opposition to some of our military interventions and would just be happy if he left the party all together instead of the current crop of GOP candidates having to worry about "being nice to him" during the debates.

This obviously didn't sit too well with one of his supporters who called in directly after the comments were made. Leave it to the neo-con Kristol to attack Paul for one of the few things I agree with him on.

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On this Sunday's Meet the Press, after being badgered by David Gregory on whether or not he would consider a third party run in the 2012 presidential election or not, Rep. Ron Paul told Gregory it's not something his campaign is concentrating on and that it would be a distraction, but also said he would not rule it out completely.

I'm really curious how the Villagers in the media are going to react if Ron Paul actually ends up winning Iowa. That would probably be as enjoyable to watch as how they handle it if he does decide to throw his hat in later as a Libertarian candidate if the Republican primaries don't go well for him.

Transcript via:

MR. GREGORY: Before you go, congressman, let me ask you about the strength of your following. Mitt Romney acknowledged it last night, saying everywhere he goes in Iowa your supporters are there. And he respects that. If you don't prevail in Iowa or don't prevail to get the nomination, will you endorse?

REP. PAUL: Oh, I have no idea. I'll wait and see about that. It depends on how the platform works out; and, you know, I was bragging a little bit last night when they asked us about our opponents up there, and I was very pleased that some of them are starting to use a little bit of the language that I use. We'll wait and see how things go and, and--since they are willing to change their positions and have in the past. So I'll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. But my main goal is to look to January 3rd and January 10th, and we're doing well. So it's premature for me to be talking about what I'm going to do after January 10th until we find out exactly how this plays out.

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Please Sarah, by all means feel free to split the Republican vote for 2012.

JENKINS: How much impact do you think we will see on November 2nd with the Tea Party's message?

PALIN: I think the Tea Party is key to the movement that turns this country around. Tea Party Americans have been bold enough to start telling the truth.

And again, knowing that they are going to get the political shots and shots from the media and the slander, still they've done what patriots have done throughout history. They've withstood that, knowing their message is right, stolid, steel-spined. So their influence is going to be strong going into November 2nd and stronger come November 3rd.

JENKINS: The movement continues. Are you the leader of the Tea Party?

PALIN: Thank goodness, tea party Americans don't have, they don't need a leader. They are not a bunch of "sheeple." They are good, hardworking, independent Americans. Not just hard-core conservatives involved in any kind of political machine. They are independents knowing that America is based on very, very solid foundational principles. They want to get back to those principles, and that has nothing do with having a party machine telling them or an individual politician telling them what to do.

JENKINS: Some of the tea party candidates, not just Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Marco Rubio in Florida, Christine O'Donnell in Delaware -- do you think they will go, if they are elected and take that message and shake-up Washington? I know you like to shake things up.

PALIN: I do. That's what it is going to take. Yes, they better. And I have faith they will shake things up because that's why we're sending them there.

And this is kind of -- I think some in the GOP, it is their last shot. It is their last chance. We will lose states and be disappointed from them if they start straying from the bedrock principles that can grow our economy. If they start straying, then why not a third party? That's what people are going to start asking.

JENKINS: And do you see leaders like House Minority leader John Boehner or Mitch McConnell, do you see them embracing this Tea Party message, or do you see the rift getting bigger?

PALIN: No, I see them embracing and evolving into what the people's message is. As we the people grassroots movement is able to articulate the solutions to the problems we are facing in America. They're seeing it.

And I think it empowers them to start doing what inherently they know is fundamentally right to get the economy on the right track. It empowers them.

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Even though I still agree that those who have been damaged by the oil spill in the Gulf getting something from BP right now is better than what we saw happen after the Exxon Valdez disaster -- where those who had claims got stalled for years and our wonderful corporatist Supreme Court decided that if they weren't dead yet ages later they were going to get next to nothing for their suffering -- it looks like Kenneth Feinberg is going back on the Obama administration's promise that taking money from BP now will not prevent anyone who has been damaged and who takes money from the escrow fund now from having the right to sue BP later.

Here's a portion of a press release from the Obama administration on June 16th of this year.

This $20 billion will provide substantial assurance that the claims people and businesses have will be honored. It’s also important to emphasize this is not a cap. The people of the Gulf have my commitment that BP will meet its obligations to them. BP has publicly pledged to make good on the claims that it owes to the people in the Gulf, and so the agreement we reached sets up a financial and legal framework to do it.

Another important element is that this $20 billion fund will not be controlled by either BP or by the government. It will be put in a escrow account, administered by an impartial, independent third party. So if you or your business has suffered an economic loss as a result of this spill, you’ll be eligible to file a claim for part of this $20 billion. This fund does not supersede either individuals’ rights or states’ rights to present claims in court. BP will also continue to be liable for the environmental disaster it has caused, and we’re going to continue to work to make sure that they address it.

Kenneth Feinberg directly contradicted that statement during his meeting with Louisiana residents on July 15th.

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Bill Maher and Jesse Ventura talked marijuana legalization, how to give third party candidates a chance in our elections, alternative voting, states rights, whether you can be religious without being a member of an organized religion and the Vatican's problems on Real Time. I thought it was a pretty good show all around tonight. I don't agree with Bill and Jesse on everything by any means but I sure as hell would enjoy the cable "news" shows more if more of them were half as informative as Bill's show was tonight.

For those of you without HBO, they'll have the Overtime segment posted a bit later on the Real Time web site if you'd like to watch it.