Politico: Fox 'purge' shows GOP is trying to moderate

This is moderating? Politico's head honchos, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, want you to know Republicans really mean it this time when they say they're paring down the crazy and are rebooting the party to be less stupid. The proof of that? Well, just look at their broadcast media arm, Fox, they say.

Fox ousted contributors Sarah Palin and Dick Morris, two of the most obnoxiously partisan figures on the network's air. [...]

Ailes has aggressively, and shrewdly, toned things down post-election. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were among the first conservatives to call for a rethinking of the GOP's opposition to comprehensive immigration reform. And then Palin and Morris got the boot, sending an unmistakable message about the new expectations for the channel's contributors.

While it's encouraging to know that even Fox is capable of being embarrassed by an association with Dick Morris, really? That Fox decided to sever ties with the guy who makes a career out of being outrageously and hilariously wrong isn't the most convincing of arguments. And the booting of the idiot half-term governor was just looking at the bottom line. Seriously, $15 a word for the handful of appearances she deigned to make was just not a smart use of Roger Ailes money. They were just cutting their losses with that one.

One look at what Fox has been up to lately (impeachment, anyone? Using 9-11 to attack President Obama's immigration proposal?) makes the argument that Ailes has "aggressively toned things down" just ridiculous.

Fox is, and will remain for the next four years, committed to one thing: making up as much crazy, paranoid shit about Obama in his second term as they did his first. I'm sure they'll be able to pick up the slack with their remaining cast of characters.