Thanks, Florida.

What--Screwing up the 2000 election wasn't enough for you people?

Thanks. Thanks alot.

Assuming there is no shocking revelation or health issue, the GOP nomination is over. Conservatives need to start practicing the phrase "Nominee presumptive John McCa....."

Sorry, I can't say it. Not yet.

But it's true. When the campaign comes here to Massachusetts on February 5th, I'll proudly cast my vote for any option on the GOP ballot other than You-Know-Who, up to and including Ron Paul. But it will be a futile gesture. Mr. "1/3rd Of The GOP Primary Vote"--who lost among Republican voters again in Florida--is going to be the Republican nominee.

He's going to win the big, left-leaning states on Tuesday. Huckabee will campaign in the midwestern and southern states, denying Romney the one-on-one contest for GOP voters that Captain Amnesty would almost certainly lose. The result: More wins on February 5th for He Who Must Not Be Named, and fewer wins for Romney.

Forget delegate count. Florida has launched the one ship that Romney's money and Rush Limbaugh cannot stop: The U.S.S. Inevitable. It's gonna happen. Even if there were a realistic pathway to stop him, the media have seized control of the process now and are declaring him inevitable. Every win he gets on February 5th will be magnified by the media, every loss marginalized.

He is, after all, the favorite Republican of the New York Times.

So it is over. Finished. In November, Republicans will be sending their most liberal, least trustworthy candidate to take on Hillary Clinton--perhaps not more liberal than Barack Obama, but certainly far less trustworthy.

And the worst part for the Right is that McCain will have won the nomination while ignoring, insulting and, as of this weekend, shamelessly lying about conservatives and conservatism.

You think he supported amnesty six months ago? You think he was squishy on tax cuts and judicial nominees before? Wait until he has the power to anger every conservative in America, and feel good about it.

Every day, he dreams of a world filled with happy Democrats and insulted Republicans. And he is, thanks to Florida, the presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

And on that note, I'm off to climb into a bottle of Bushmill's.

Thanks to those geniuses in Florida, it's going to be a LONG nine months.