Jim Hightower: Republicans Want to Put Reagan on Rushmore [VIDEO]

I must admit that the seven-year reign of Bush & Company makes me yearn for the years of Ronald Reagan, when the term "conservative" merely meant right wing, rather than full-tilt, bull-goose loopy.

Still, let's not get our national memory so warped that we put "The Gipper" on a pedestal, as today's far-right ideologues want to do. Bad enough that they keep trying to stick Reagan's name on public facilities all across America (apparently oblivious to the irony of naming these things for the guy who claimed to hate government) - but now they're pushing to put his mug on Mount Rushmore. I kid you not! One website even offers a retouched photo of Rushmore that superimposes Ronnie's likeness onto the mountaintop, right alongside Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln.

Even more hilarious is the scramble by this year's GOP presidential contenders to one-up each other in their claim to be the New Reagan. This is a hoot, because if Reagan was running today, the ideologically-correct voters who control the Republican primary elections would savage him for his record on practically every hot-button issue.