The accursed NY Times firewall hides a very interesting column by John Tierney this morning, reporting on the mood at a recent libertarian conference in Amsterdam (where else?) sponsored by Reason Magazine (who else?). Tierney writes:

I have bad news for the G.O.P. regarding that promising new bloc of voters, the South Park Republicans. It turns out they're not Republicans, at least not anymore. [snip]

The G.O.P. used to have a sizable libertarian bloc, but I couldn't see any sign of it at the conference. [Matt] Stone and [Trey] Parker [the creators of South Park] said they were rooting for Hillary Clinton in 2008 simply because it would be weird to have her as president. The prevailing sentiment among the rest of the libertarians was that the best outcome this November would be a Democratic majority in the House, because then at least there'd be gridlock.

"We're the long-suffering, battered spouse in a dysfunctional political marriage of convenience," said Nick Gillespie, the editor in chief of Reason. "Most of the libertarians I know have given up on the G.O.P. The odds that we'll stick around for the midterm election are about as good as the odds that Rick Santorum will join the Village People."

This is definitely a warning sign for the GOP, and yet another reason why Republicans are struggling this year. I'll try to come back with more on this later, and I'm sure Ryan Sager will have something to say about Tierney's column as well, given that he's one of the aforementioned disgruntled libertarians and has already taken a look at the size, scope, and potential damage caused to the GOP by massive libertarian defections.