"It is fine to dismiss Mr. Specter as an opportunist, but opportunists tell you something: which side is winning. That's the side they want to be on." 

Ms. Noonan mischaracterizes Specter's opportunism. His isn't based on which side is winning - but on which side he can win the primary.

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

  Who is Peggy Noonan again?

  I coulda swore we brought all the disputatious commitees of the Republican party together into a consensus and we said as one voice - that spendulus thing is nothing but a huge money giveaway to all the faithful democrat factions.

  We were very together on that. Except for Specter the Defecter

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

an Eternal Champion after many exhausting trials and tribulations in the endless war between Law and Chaos 

I see what is occurring not as "shrinking" the party, but purging the fakes and phoney charlatans to make room for real conservatives. We are smoking them out one by one. I say good riddance.

It would a lot easier to take Noonan seriously, if she and her wing of the Republican party hadn't gotten everything they wanted, culminating in the selection of John McCain.

You remember McCain, Peggy?

He was the hopeless utterly politically unprincipled boob, just creamed by the most radically left Democrat candidate ever.

The only thing which energized his campaign and prvented an even bigger gap than 52/47 was a conservative woman called Sarah Palin.

You trashed her, I believe. And you continue to trash her.

It appears that while you want a Republican party of candidates so vast it encompasses Democrats like Specter -- but not vast enough to cover a mainstream conservative like Palin, who is beyond the pale to you and your oh so DC claque.

The Curious Case Of Peggy Noonan -- the older she gets the more childishly incoherent she becomes.

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
Check out Hollycrud checker-outers

That makes a lot of sense.  If I hold to my conservative values to my death then I WIN!  Just because the lemmings jump over the cliff doesn't mean I have to.  Unfortunately, I'm on the same boat that the dems are sinking but at least I'll be able to say "I TOLD YOU SO, YOU DUMBASSES!"

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I feel sorry for Peggy Noonan.  She used to have some great ideas.  She was an unparalleled wordsmith when she wrote for Reagan.

Now her brain is drained and she wants us all to be Democrats now that the Democrats are all Socialist.

It's hard to talk when you're teabagging - Anderson Cooper

Notice that the meme being created on the left is that Specter was somehow rejected by the Republican Congress, that he was pushed out by those mean Republicans. Specter may have been irritating and unreliable, but there was no movement in Congress to get rid of him. He could have stayed in the Republican Party and Congress for the rest of his life. All of his problems originated with voters in Pennsylvania, which the liberals are a little more hesitant to disparage.

Other moderate Republicans like the fair ladies of Maine are welcome to stay in the Republican Party. If Republican voters in Maine are unhappy with them, let them field candidates in the primaries. That has to be done at the local level. If we are not willing to do the work necessary to put together a primary challenge, let's not moan and whine after the fact.

PS: Specter on Elena Kagan, one near the top of the Bamster's SCOTUS list: "Earlier this year, Specter came out strongly against the nomination of Elena Kagan, Obama’s pick for the post of Solicitor General. Kagan is one of several people who’s being talked about as a potential Supreme Court pick for Obama." (Ref)

Specter was unreliable at times for the Republicans in the Senate, I expect he will be just as unreliable for the democratics.

"A great party allows everyone in, and allows prospective members to self-define."

If we have to become Democrats to win, what's the point? A party that believes in everything believes in nothing.

"The other day Sen. Jim DeMint said he'd rather have 30 good and reliable conservative senators than 60 unreliable Republicans. Really? Good luck stopping an agenda you call socialist with 30 hardy votes. "

I guess you haven't exactly been paying attention lately, have you? Democrats who call themselves Republicans but vote Democrat aren't helping to stop the socialist agenda they believe in.

Maybe it's time for you to move on along to the other side too, Ms. Peggy. The fewer posers we have, the better off my side will be. We're not interested in becoming liberals just so we can say we won.

I know that Peggy has for some time believed herself to be the sage of the Repbulican party.  I know that without her Ronald Reagan would have been nothing.

I know that she took credit for the work of many others and what is that word that was used by her co-workers?  Opportunist?

Ms Noonan I refer you to that great war criminal Harry Truman (paraphrasing here) "when the people are give the choice of voting for a Democrat or a Democrat they will always choose the Democrat."

Jack

"If at age 20 you are a conservative then you have no heart.  If at age 30 you are a liberal then you have no brains."   Sir Winston Churchill

Noonan,

 Queen of the closet liberals...I think its time Noonan realize, the conservatives are cleaning house and we have already DUMPED her. so Peggy, STFU!

It was liberal and moderate Republican politicians like Specter, Hagel, Snowe, and Collins and establishment "conservatives" like Hatch and Lugar who helped send the GOP down the path to destruction from 2001 - 2006. They diluted the conservative message and their leadership caused the House and Senate Republicans to lose focus and overspend like the Democrats. By having their own liberal agenda, they muddled any chance of a coherent message from the GOP. If all the liberals left the GOP tomorrow, it would weaken our numbers alarmingly in the short term, but at this point, we're so far down, does it even matter? If the party can come back, as it did in 1980, at least it's elected politicians would be speaking from the same page - at least for awhile. My biggest concern is the fact that there doesn't seem to be a strong conservative and charismatic leader, like Reagan, to take the party's reins and guide it.

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

There is nothing "marvelous" about this piece Mr Shephard. Peggy Noonan is a long winded blow hard who sold her principles for popularity long ago.  Actually just the OPPOSITE of her postulate is true. The only way for you to win  is for you to CLEARLY DEFINE what you are for and against then those that agree will join. Period. 

If Ms Noonan's theoretical house is not built on sifting sand, riddle me this: Why do liberals INSIST on making it illegal for conservative groups, churches, Boy Scouts, or Student Associations,  to EXCLUDE those that they don't agree with? If this is the road to RUIN as Ms Noonan suggests, surely the liberals would be all for your continued demise, right? So how come they sue in court for the right of Atheists to join RELIGIOUS GROUPS?Why do they want homosexuals allowed to hold office in groups that are OPPOSED TO HOMOSEXUALS? 

Because liberals know that the quickest way for you to LOSE ALL OF YOUR PRINCIPLES is for you to be LED by those who DON'T AGREE WITH YOU! Look around the evidence is all over. They want homo's in the Boy Scouts a Christian group so that overtime it loses it's "Christian-ish" ways and becomes more "butthole friendly". LOL.

PEGGY NOONAN is PART OF THE PROBLEM! Soft assed nothings that urged us to take on the idiot Bush who almost NO ONE had ever heard of, because he is a "compassionate conservative". Well, that worked out just fine didn't it. Leaving apart the war, Bush put more sodomites and lesbians to work than GLAD! Bush spent money like a sailor on shore leave, CLEARLY helping us define ourselves as preferring "smaller government". NOT.

Did the civil right's movement allow Klansmen to march with them?  Would the Apartheid movement have allowed those who only wanted to SLIGHTLY free the blacks from oppression? There were plenty of Dutch folk who didn't want blacks to be EQUAL but didn't want to "hurt or enslave" them! Think they'd be welcome at a Mandela rally? Did the woman's movement allow men who claimed their rightful place as the HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD, to become members?! DUH. How about the abortion movement? How's PLANNED PARENTHOOD doing with their "Pro-life" membership drive?  Why is it that the very notion of that seems ridiculous to you? There wasn't even room in that satanic party for ONE Joe Lieberman! One! 

But it's only YOU, who seek to maintain Judeo Christian values, that "PUNDITS" say will "benefit" by the membership of your enemy within your ranks! 

If you can't convince the populace that conservative values are BETTER then you deserve to lose. The problem is that all who say the are conservative aren't all that "convinced" themselves. Exhibit A: PEGGY NOONAN. 

It is fine to dismiss Mr. Specter as an opportunist

I don't dismiss Mr. Specter as an opportunist.  I dismiss him as a non-entity.  If becoming a majority or even a competitive party means having to carry the likes of Arlen Specter, the party is better off in the minority.  "Moderates" aren't going to become Republicans because the Party softens towards the left on some popular social issues or because the Party backs off opposing Obama.  "Moderates" are going to become Conservatives when the reckless policies that this irresponsible administration and Congress ram down our throats drives the economy into the ground...it seems that they have to learn from their mistakes.  Peggy Noonan is a smug, elitist, self-promoting nobody.  You can just imagine her closing her eyes while writing this trash, gathering up all the phony sincerity to do it.

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill

 
Peggy, you left the party a long time ago.  Why don't you just admit it and go?  They probably need a replacement for Keith Olbermann at MSNBC.  Maybe you could double the watchers to two.

Don't let the door hit you in the backside.  Just GO!!!

"What experience and history teach is
this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history,
or acted on principles deduced from it."

G. W. F. Hegel

Sometimes you can cure cancer with a scalpel.

I wouldn't be against a dinosaur as the new GOP symbol. Don't get me wrong, elephant is cool and all but a dinosaur would be awesome. Stomping Democrat house bills!

I have had an unfavorable opinion of Peggy Noonan for quite some time now. Whenever I have watched her on television she always comes off as condescending and just barely able to tolerate those whom she sees as inferior. She smiles and nods slowly as if to say, "You poor silly ignorant peasants, how long must I suffer with and guide you." 

Do not confuse one's ability to write well with being right about issues. I believe she is truely in love with herself as much as her craft and allows that to cloud her ability to reason logically. She sees herself as above all this annoying display of hard knuckly politics. She is after all an "artist". Someone said earlier said she was smug. I agree and think she like so many others fails prey to and has begun to believe her own press. She has never run for office or won any elections like so many of the talking heads, they can all tell you what a candidate did wrong or predict the outcome of an election. How many times have they been wrong as hell? Peggy does not know anymore and probably less than the average poster on this board. She is just one more elitest, blue blood country club republican who is embarrassed and annoyed by the common folks and all the fuss they are making. Everything I read in her article said We need to just compromise, go along to get along and hell, just let anyone in who wants in. Her and her ilk is why we are where we are now.

I say good riddance to Arlen, Lincoln Chaffee and any of the other RINOs that have left and let's keep up the pressure so the rest of the weak kneed, luke-warm fence sitting parasites bail out too. 

Your  coalition isn't good for much if you can't rely on its members to hold the line in critical votes.  The stimulus for example.  The reason the Republicans do not have 60 votes is not that the party has not been inclusive over the past 8 years, it is precisely because it has.  The attempt to steal the Democrats thunder by abandoning Reagan's principle that "government is the problem" is the proximate cause of their loss of control.  Why vote for someone who is pretending to be a Democrat, vote for the real one!  I still believe we lost the last election because the base was not enthused and the Democrat base was.  Despite the turnout, I think many republicans stayed home rather than vote for McCain.  His daughters ramblings since have done nothing to make them regret it.

The idea that the GOP is adopting a "shrink to win" strategy is a total straw man argument and has to be exposed as such. No one in the GOP is advocating a narrowing of the Party, but many of the voters have decided that they are done supporting candidates who represent very few of their actual views and positions. That is the stark reality that Arlen Specter faced as he toured hhis state and looked at the polls, and saw that Pat Toomey was going to take his precious position as the GOP candidate away from him in the next election...so he took a run-out powder and switched sides.

One of my friends at Town Hall posted an essay on his blog that touched on just the attitude that Peggy Noonan, and seemingly Noel as well, are advocating (and I blogged about it a year or so ago) and put it thus: The way the GOP is attempting to draw 'moderates' into the party now is like trying to herd stray cats under an umbrella in the rain. No matter how much you chase them around the yard, you can never get them all under the umbrella. It is therefore better to anchor your unbrella in one spot, keep it there, and allow the cats to come to you in order to stay dry. Basically he was saying that if the GOP wants to get moderates under the umbrella, the GOP has to have a consistent set of core beliefs and principles and allow those 'moderates' who want to come in to do so, but that the party cannot abandon what it is supposed to be in order to make them feel comfortable.

It seems that Noonan and others like her would rather see the GOP completely abandon any pretense of conservatism in order to win elections, but what is the point of winning if you stand for nothing? The GOP abandoned its core starting with the decision of George HW Bush to raise taxes, continued it with their free spending ways under GW Bush, and reached a crescendo with the nomination of the ulimate Republican anti-conservative John McCain to carry the GOP banner in the '08 election. And what did that get us? A party that lost the White House, saw the Democrats gain a stranglehold in the House, and a net gain in the Senate. And in order to combat this Noonan suggests that we move even futher towards the Democrats in order to expand the party numbers, even though such a move would further alienate a base that rebelled against the national party in the last election cycle, and wants nothing less than a return to the conservative principles that used to define the GOP.

While Ms. Noonan's piece may be thought provoking, it is simply a restatement by a pseudoconservative voice, living off of the fact that she was once a Reagan speechwriter, of the same tired advice that all manner of media figures and Democratic pundits offer the GOP: become us and you can win again! Only, if we continue to become them we will find ourselves in a position of the permanent minority since Democratic voters are going to vote for authentic Democrats all the time, and not a watered down Republican.

As my friend at Town Hall said, I would rather 'die', in the political sense, on my feet than live as a slave to the government on my knees. And following the advice that Noonan and her media pals are dispensing would only serve to cast the GOP into the political wilderness once again, and that I cannot abide. If Noonan and her ilk want to capitulate, then fine...join Specter in the Democratic Party and you can be part of the big tent that you so admire. But as for me, I am never going to give in to the idea that electoral wins are more important than living by the principles that I hold dear in my heart and spirit.

The party didn't push him out his constituents did.  Why does nobody recognize this?  Is the will of the voters so irrelevent? THE PARTY WAS BACKING HIM! More lies from the self-appointed arbiters of truth. 

Liberal: remove all that's Right, and this is what's Left.

During the first 6 GW years, the media kept hyping the Republican Congress while the party was stuffed with RINOs who kept voting with the Dems.  It made me crazy.  I got angry when my RNC donations might have gone to Chuckie Hagel, etc.  When Specter, Snow and Collins voted for the stimulous bill, the media did make a big deal out of it (Of course, as the only sensible GOP senators!), but the media stayed silent when they were sabotaging the GOP agenda in the early Bush years.  The media was able to use that to convince the public that the GOP did not stick to its values.  The likes of Lindsay Graham and John McCain (We got stuck with him because of Noonan-like thinking!) still make me cringe remembering their love of "bipartisanship".  Of course, the media loves it and public doesn't learn that it only goes one way.  It's time we purge all of the RINOs so the GOP can do the job we expect of them.