Like the French, but more obnoxious

During the Terri Schaivo affair, the Republicans received alot of criticism for their defense of the sanctity of life. Most of it came from the usual suspects; the Main Stream Media and the Democrats. However, some came from the libertarian wing of the party, who were aghast that the Party would use federal law to "trample" state's rights, though I suspect that most of their concerns were caused by the fact that the leadership would actually listen to those darn snake-handling Religious Right types.

This has caused the predictable "Republicans are cracking up" debate, one that I've heard over and over again. I'm not going to rehash it here. But thanks to Spoons, I found an excellent description of Libertarians over at Ankle Biting Pundits:

Too often, though, the idea of a conservative-libertarian divorce reads like an ultimatum from libertarians, who occasionally express so much frustration at conservative apostasy they threaten to walk away. If we’re going to follow the marriage analogy to its grisly end, this dynamic is akin to a mouthy, pushy wife riding her hardworking husband (cheap fedora cocked to one side, tie askew, briefcase bulging with work still unfinished) about how useless he is around the house from the moment he walks in the door to the moment his head hits the pillow. With all respect, on Election Day, conservatives are the ones doing all the work.

Good, very good. But in the comments section of Spoon's post, I provided one that I think is better:

The Libertarian contribution to the GOP 2004 victory was kind of like that of the Free French Forces in WWII:

Sure, they helped out a bit. But the outcome still would have been the same without them.

UPDATE: Incidentally the reason I never joined the Libertarian Party, even though I agree with much of their positions, was because of their sometimes overt anti-religious attitudes. Besides, the Libertarians have kind of a People's Front of Judea mentality: We are the true Constitutionalists, and everyone else is just a tool of Big Government.