If 'Republican' meant what it did when our fantasies of stern fathers wrestling with the issues of the day and pushing for self-reliance and independent strength, instead of sucking at the public teat as hard and long as possible to drain the public of its vital fluids, I think we'd all be Republican. And if 'Democrat' meant the thinking person's way forward, a place for ideas to be entertained and tested, an inclusive group closely resembling our fine country, everyone under 60 with more than an 8th grade education would be a Democrat.

So when we collected to jettison the RNC from the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal Government, the Democratic Party and its lack of zealous idealism and behavior modification, the sloppy way they march in formation made the Democrats the US party.

Leave those old grouchy throwbacks to imagined eras of peace and profoundly good behavior complain about it, and reward Specter with another term. I don't want everything I want. That would be childish or Bushist, or Republican, which used to mean something.

Specter woke up, realized the psycho Toomey was being taken seriously (Is he a LaRouche type?) in a moderate state full of Universities and Colleges, looked around and saw his colleagues replaced by Cold War Zombies, and I'd have held the door open for him.

Welcome back to the pragmatic side, Mr. Specter. You may continue to piss me off, because symbolically you will do more to piss them off.

Joy,

Joe 

And then they'll look at the callow, shady ways the Dick made his fortune and extended his career long past the natural end of his life. The Undead Veep. They are in the future, so they know there's no deal with no devil. Just a pact among cynical rich industrialists and capital to keep things in the family. One day they'll have it all, and we'll come crawling to them for handouts. So they'll come to the conclusion he had accomplices.

But he's right about moderation. Moderating the absolutism currently bogging down the RNC would only bring it into the American Mainstream, which is to say the extremists will be tall and short, loud and quiet, right and wrong, and ready to face the challenge of a future in the traditionally flexible and somewhat lawless way we do things. We must be patient and persistent. It is dying, and if we don't do anything stupid, it will become as permanently marginalized as Rove's aggrandized permanent majority (=tyranny, 1-party rule, Shining Path).

Why didn't Dan Quayle spout off with his bullshit after being released?