Conservatives are beginning to call for Newt Gingrich’s large, pasty, inflated head on a silver platter. The National Review Online is leading the charge with an editorial asking Gingrich to drop out and endorse Santorum. In their knee-cap of Newt, the editors said it would be a mistake for Republican voters to nominate someone with “such poor judgment and persistent unpopularity” to be the party’s leader. They also said that Mr. Santorum had been “conducting himself rather impressively” after his recent victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

A New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday morning showed 30 percent of Republican primary voters support Santorum with only 27 percent in favor of Mitt Romney. Ron Paul is at an anemic 2 percent and Gingrich is floundering at 10 percent.

By all indications the GOP race has boiled down to The Insincere (Romney) vs. The Insane (Santorum). Although, the way things are going in this tumultuous race, The Unstable (Newt) should stay in a bit longer because he will likely get one more chance in the limelight if he performs well in the South.

The idea of Santorum being considered electable by anyone other than his family is disheartening. The candidate has a serious issue with women and it is astounding that any female voter would pull the lever for this incredibly disturbed man. On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos questioned Santorum about a 2005 book he penned, “It Takes a Family” that blames “radical feminists” for harming the family by snookering women into believing that work is more satisfying than homemaking.

Santorum spent the entire show with a loopy magic brownie smile, appearing as if he had partied Saturday evening and gone straight to the studio from a big nightclub. His smirk seemed to agitate Stephanopoulos who asked the candidate during one point in the interview what was “so funny.”

To explain the offending passages in his book, Santorum said his wife Karen (who previously had no issue with feminism while she lived with an abortion doctor) wrote those parts of the book, even though she was not mentioned as a contributing writer in the acknowledgements section.

According to Rick or Karen or whatever ghostwriter had to channel a Bronze Age troglodyte to write the text:

“Sadly the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960′s has taken root,” the book said. “The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.”

Yeah, this ought to play well with women…in the year 1312.

Commenting on the GOP contestants in this never-ending “Ugly Pageant,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote:

“Anyone with an Internet connection is aware that Mr. Santorum is best known for 2003 remarks about homosexuality, incest and bestiality. But his strangeness runs deeper than that. For example, last year Mr. Santorum made a point of defending the medieval Crusades against the “American left who hates Christendom.” Historical issues aside (hey, what are a few massacres of infidels and Jews among friends?), what was this doing in a 21st-century campaign? How did American conservatism end up so detached from, indeed at odds with, facts and rationality?”

Times columnist Thomas Friedman wisely adds:

“The party has let itself become the captive of conflicting ideological bases: anti-abortion advocates, anti-immigration activists, social conservatives worried about the sanctity of marriage, libertarians who want to shrink government, and anti-tax advocates who want to drown government in a bathtub. Sorry, but you can’t address the great challenges America faces today with that incoherent mix of hardened positions.”

All of America, but particularly the LGBT community, is in a dire situation when one of our two parties is off the cliff insane. I write this not because I loathe Republicans, but because I want a sane GOP to emerge so American politics can return back to some semblance of normalcy.

It is simply dangerous when one party is so brain damaged that the LGBT community has to place all of its eggs in one basket – the Democrats – which gives us virtually no leverage with either party. Now is the time for the few reasonable and rational Republicans remaining to take back control of the GOP – if it is not too late. (And it may be two beers and three ticks of the clock past last call)

Unfortunately, there are too many Republican Party hacks and soulless apparatchiks who are invested in continuing the twisted ideas and surreal propaganda that has so harmed this nation. Instead of turning the crazy train around, they are helping to step on the gas pedal and drive it into oblivion.

Until the extreme right is returned to its rightful place on the margins of American politics, the Republican Party will continue to be a refuge for reprobates (Tom DeLay), hypocrites (Newt Gingrich), phonies (Mitt Romney), and no-nothings (Sarah Palin).

And worse…Rick Santorum.

Wayne Besen is a columnist and author of the book “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.”