So while some liberal Republicans do need to go, seeking purity will mean permanent minority status.

No it doesn’t. Conservative principles are easily agreed upon by the majority. It is when we elect “conservatives” and they start to act like liberals is when this party gets into trouble. As has been said many times, if there is a choice between a Democrat and Democrat lite, why not vote in the real thing, at least you know where they stand. 3 trillion dollar budgets are not a conservative principle, but yet Republicans voted for it. It doesn’t take a super genius to figure this stuff out, stop leaning left once you get to DC, and this party would be fine. Everytime they compromise their principles, it just gets that much easier the next time, and pretty soon they are no better than the liberals, and the people who elected them, just won’t have it. Look at the real reason Specter left the party, his own polling data said he was going to lose next primary, finally the Reps in PA had enough of Specter’s stupidity. – Lorica

For one, he’s set up a false choice. While only having 30 true believers is a real choice, having 60(!) “that don’t have a set of beliefs” is silly.

Realistically, the 60 would be split.

If you’re at 30 you can talk all you want and get self-righteous about how pure you are but you won’t affect diddly.

But once you have the magic 51, even if 25 are squishy, you control the agenda because you control the committees. You will at least get your bills to the floor for a vote.

So while some liberal Republicans do need to go, seeking purity will mean permanent minority status.

Wonder if that has anything to do with why moderate Republicans have been getting blasted from “their” congressional seats the last two elections, while conservatives have for the most part been retaining “theirs”.

Moderates still don’t get it, do they?

With that as our objective, details can be hashed out later. The first priority is to elect people who aren’t out to enslave us with rhetoric and keep us on the new plantation. Specter, McCain, Bush, Steele, Snowe and many other of our “leaders” have unfortunately acted like the massa’s lackey in that regard.

My personal opinion, for whatever it’s worth, is that the tent is big enough for anyone center or right. What I don’t like is the “centrists” bowing to the god of panic and screaming “we’ll lose if we don’t become like them” every time an election is coming up.

Actually, I largely agree with you. (David Frum I think is a good example of this.) There’s also the tendency many of us have noted to act as if “compromise” means “give the other guy what he wants and get nothing in return.” Right now what worries me more, however, is the risk that this “family argument” could be one in which everyone digs in their heels, and people who should be natural allies stop talking to each other.

It is a matter of choosing our own candidates (as opposed to letting the D.C. RINOs and the MSM doing it), candidates who will be reflective of the ideals and platform of the Republican Party. Specter reflected neither, and neither Bush nor McCain were representative of a lot of what the party platform said. They did, however, try to please the donkeys at every turn.

Of course, during the end of the Clinton period and through the Bush years, most Republican senators and representatives in action didn’t, either, and it cost the party and (IMHO) the country dearly, but those who put spending and paybacks above principle deserved to be eliminated from the gross spending.

My personal opinion, for whatever it’s worth, is that the tent is big enough for anyone center or right. What I don’t like is the “centrists” bowing to the god of panic and screaming “we’ll lose if we don’t become like them” every time an election is coming up. That don’t cut it for me, nor for a lot of other conservatives.

Amen!

Arlen Sphincter: Good riddance. Back labeled as a Democrat. Which he he said he was up until the last time he tamed the PA rednecks.

Truth in Labeling?

Hell Yeah!

Put me down as waving bye to Arlen, but worried about our direction.

BTW, DeMint strikes me as one of the good ones.