Quote of the day: You go with the Gipper you've got, not the one you wish you had

Esquire's Tim Hefferman on why a President who did so many things the current GOP and Tea Party claim to despise is now their religious totem:

I suspect that the Republican mythmakers deify Reagan not out of desire, but simple necessity. The reality of living Republican leadership is hypocrisy and disaster; might as well take a shot at riding to legitimacy on a pack of lies strapped to a dead man's back. If nothing else, he can't complain.