GOP/Libertarian Split

Noah Shachtman has an article on the alienation of libertarians from the GOP: Liberty Island. While it might better be titled "A couple bloggers and this guy from Cato don't like Bush", it does present some interesting questions: will libertarians bolt from the GOP in 2004? And will it matter?

One interesting fact in this article that I didn't know is that the Libertarian Party is getting the most votes of any third party since the 1948 Progressive Party in congressional elections. Does that make the Libertarian Party, not the Green Party, the real party of "grassroots democracy"?