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WASHINGTON -- Prior to recent events, I intended to write about the GOP's message problem with the headline: "Shoot the Messenger."

Sunday's murder of abortion doctor George Tiller makes my title inappropriate, but the idea remains relevant.

The adage, of course, is "Don't shoot the messenger," meaning we shouldn't necessarily blame the person who delivers bad news. For the GOP these days, however, the problem isn't so much the message. It's the messenger.

By grotesque coincidence, Tiller's murderer furthers the point.

It has long been a problem for the GOP that some of the party's cherished positions are embraced most enthusiastically by people whose grip on reality is sometimes ... tenuous. This is especially true with regard to abortion.

There are certainly compelling secular arguments against abortion that one might be perfectly willing to hear. Then Randall Terry shows up.

Terry, the colorful founder of Operation Rescue, doesn't represent the Republican Party, but he is nevertheless the most familiar face of the anti-abortion movement. When President Barack Obama recently gave the commencement address at Notre Dame, who showed up to lead the protest but Terry and carnival performer Alan Keyes.

Rather than convincing people to think differently about abortion, the Terry-Keyes act makes one want to write checks to Planned Parenthood. And smart Catholics, who were perfectly capable of articulating their objections, were suddenly stuck in the frame with rabble-rousers who demean the message.

Such is the continuing dilemma of the GOP: How do you get out the message when the messengers keep getting in the way?

Now comes a fanatic with a gun. Let me be clear: I don't mean to compare Terry or Keyes to the shooter. The former are passionate protesters; the latter is a murderer.

Nor do I join those who have spoken out against Tiller as somehow responsible for his murder. The man who pulled the trigger is responsible for Tiller's death. Period.

That said, Fire-breathers on the right don't help. They may warm the base, but the Republican base is becoming a remote island in Mainstream America. Everyone else is paddling away.

Accurately or not, the right-wing wacko contingent increasingly dominates the public perception of the GOP. And, fairly or not, that perception makes it easier for characters such as Scott Roeder, the suspected shooter, to become associated with the party.

Already, Roeder's story is emerging to reveal a right-wing character from central casting. Roeder was once attracted to the Montana Freemen, best known for engaging FBI agents in an armed standoff in 1996. Roeder's ex-wife told The Associated Press that he had become "very religious, in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way.."

Indeed.

Some Internet commentary even refers to Roeder as a "Christian terrorist." Let's see: Christian, pro-gun, anti-government, pro-life. Sounds like a Republican, right? Oh, and he's suspected of being an assassin. Connect them dots.

No, it isn't fair. The GOP can't control who joins the party, and Republicans don't have a corner on random crazies. But what the Democrats have that the Republicans lack is a moderating voice to neutralize the party's more strident characters. While Democrats have Obama, Republicans are stuck with the squeakiest wheel du jour.

We should never shoot the messenger, it should go without saying. But until the GOP marginalizes those who belong in the margins, they won't be attracting many new recruits. And the messengers will continue to obscure the message.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. E-mail: kparker@kparker.com