GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE DAVID POYTHRESS: See his anti-secession video after the jump.

Democrat David Poythress may be an underdog in the 2010 governor’s race, but he put a video on YouTube today that does a pretty good job of showing how silly — perhaps even vulnerable — Republicans are sounding as they leap all over each other to appeal to the far right.

The subject: Noises the GOP candidates have been making about seceding from the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Poythress, who flaunts the fact that he’s a retired Army Reserve general, expresses his “outrage” in the video that four of six Republicans in the governor’s race are “embracing secession.”  Photos of candidates Ray McBerry, Eric Johnson, John Oxendine and Karen Handel appear on the screen.

Poythress’ claim is only a bit of a stretch. He falsely states that the candidates said they’d “support secession from the United States of America.”

On the other hand, McBerry, whose photographer should appear next to the entry for “fruitcake” in the latest edition of Webster’s, has indeed announced that he’s running as a “States’ Rights”candidate. He also has less of a chance of winning the Republican nomination as Cynthia McKinney would were she running for the Democratic nomination.

OK, so Johnson, Oxendine and Handel — three of the GOP field’s four frontrunners — stopped short of declaring war on Fort Sumter. But they’ve been only a tad less direct than McBerry.

Johnson, a state senator from Savannah voted on the last day of this year’s General Assembly session for a resolution that endorses nullification of the U.S. Constitution, if federal actions “diminish the liberty of … the states and their citizens,” and endorses granting authority to the states. That’s pretty much the argument the Confederate slave states used to secede in 1861; we all know how well that turned out.

The resolution passed 43-1, but some senators now say they voted for it without reading it in a session’s final day rush, having been assured by the sponsor that it wasn’t controversial. Johnson isn’t among those who would take the vote back.

“This is not a hollow threat,” the state senator from Savannah told the Savannah Morning News. “We are simply reasserting our authority to protect the rights, freedoms and desires of the people we are elected to serve.”

Oxendine, the state insurance commission, couldn’t vote on the Senate resolution but he enthusiastically endorses it: “Not only would I have voted for it. I would have been one of the original sponsors.” He’s also put out a press release in essense endorsing nullification, and has even Twittered that he’s decorated his son’s bedroom “Confederate gray.”

Handel, Georgia’s secretary of state, gives herself a bit more wiggle room. Her spokesman told the Morning News that he “supposes” she would have supported the resolution.

(The fourth major Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, ducked the Savannah paper’s questions; as a state representative, the sixth candidate, underdog Austin Scott, was the only senator observant enough to vote against didn’t vote on the resolution.)

All this should make great fun for Democrats. Georgia’s demographics give Republicans a clear edge in statewide races. only a GOP meltdown — like, say, dressing up in Confederate fatigues for the TV debates — is likely to lead to a Democratic victory in 2010.

But Poythress’ military background puts him on a high enough horse to express campaign-trail indignation at the four “secession candidates”: “What really offends me the most is that none of these Republican secession candidates ever wore for a single day the uniform of our country, ever carried a weapon, or heard a shot fired at them. Not one ever put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and liberties, but they recklessly call for secession from America. They would in effect ban the American flag.”

Do the Republican candidates actually believe reviving the Lost Cause would be a winning strategy in Georgia? Probably not. They’re not focused on the General Election right now, though. The trouble is that throwing red meat to the base may be key to winning the GOP primary, but that red meat isn’t likely to pass the smell test for moderates who come to the polls in November 2010.

Republican realists, who want to make sure they hold control of the Governor’s Mansion through 2011’s redistricting, would be wise to worry that secession talk — or something like it — create a Terri Schiavo moment for the Georgia GOP. And, of all places, you have to go to the right-wing blogosphere to actually hear voices intent on pulling the candidates back from the brink.

Buzz Brockway, a GOP political consultant and a contributor to Peach Pundit, attempted earlier this month to help Oxendine back off. After syndicated columnist Bill Shipp had excoriated Oxendine for entertaining the thought of secession, Brockway wrote he “talked to somebody” who told him “it’s absolutely not true.”

Thanks, Buzz. I guess that clears it up.

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