Why won't the GOP just break all ties with Rush and his other hate mongering minions ?

Apparently, a large portion of the GOP agrees with them. You are correct, it has tainted the appearance of everyone in the party. To be fair, when you are a member of a party that supports people like that, what else is the public supposed to think? I've said for years that the moderate, logical conservatives need to re-take their party. The nutcase extreme right-wingers have taken it over. If the reasonable people have allowed this to happen, how reasonable are they?