The GOP Purge

Hugh Hewitt is still defending dissident Republican Senator Arlen Specter, this time in The Weekly Standard. And he thinks Zell Miller’s tirade against the Democratic Party, A National Party No More, should be required reading for Republicans drunk on power. What will happen if the GOP burns its heretics? The same thing that happened to the Democrats.

Fast forward four years. The Democrats have convened in late summer in Cleveland to nominate former Virginia governor Mark Warner and Senator Barack Obama. It is the third night of the convention, and the Democrats have chosen as their keynote speaker . . . Arlen Specter. Or Olympia Snowe. Or Chuck Hagel. Or some other GOP big who has grown disgusted with his or her inability to have any influence on Republican deliberations. So they have bolted, bringing a message that their party breached its pledge to govern with the interests of the entire country in mind.

This may be a nightmare scenario for most people who read The Weekly Standard. But if liberal-moderate Republicans bolt the GOP for the Democrats, hey, that’s fine with me. It will make the Democrats both larger and saner. Everyone wins…except the Republicans. It’s up to them. Do I think they’ll do the right thing? Naah. Jane’s Law is still on the books.