THE PARTY'S OVER

A DATE WITH SARAH PALIN, ARLEN SPECTER & PEGGY NOONAN.

"The Party's Over, it's time to call it a day.

They've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away. 

It's time to wind up the masquerade.

Just make your mind up the piper must be paid.

The Party's Over.The candles ficker and dim. 

You danced and dreamed through the night, 

it seemed to be right just being with him.

Now you must wake up, all dreams must end.

Take off your make up, The Party's Over.

It's all over, my friend."

("The Party's Over" is a popular song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.It was introduced in the 1956 musical comedy 

Bells Are Ringing by Judy Holliday.)

In 2008 less than two hours after Peggy Noonan and former McCain advisor Mike Murphy appeared on MSNBC, a YouTube video appeared of their candid exchange in which they dismissed Sarah Palin’s viability as a VP pick. 

Off camera, in reference to Sara Palin, Noonan said,"It's Over" and discussed the "Political Bulls--t" that had occurred. Palin and Specter, at that time, were members of the GOP. Palin is still a favorite of the party right wing. Specter is gone. One less Senatorial vote for the grand old party.

I like Peggy Noonan's comments - the same way I enjoy Dowd, Krauthammer, Krugman, Rich, and Robinson. Her WSJ column of 5/2/09, "Shrink to Win' Isn't Much of a Strategy" goes straight to the point:

"I am wondering once again if Republicans in Washington fully understand what they are up against. They have had a hard week. Someday years hence, when books are written about the Republican comeback, they may well begin with this low moment, and the bolting of Arlen Specter to the Democrats. 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."

I was a gung ho young Republican in college and a believer into the Nixon years when he targeted a group of Americans who identified with the concept “silent majority” as part of its drive to create a new center-right electoral coalition. It marked the first time a presidential administration had used survey research to disaggregate the electorate for the purpose of coalition building. The silent majority’s members shared a common set of political attitudes, particularly on social and cultural issues. This was the entry point for a set of moral and religious judgements that would fragment the party. It won the election for Nixon. A new GOP coalition entered the party. I left. 40+ years later so did Arlen Specter. Sarah Palin is still there.

 "The party has shifted very far to the right," Specter said, explaining that he isn't ditching the GOP so much as the Pennsylvania GOP is ditching him. The political reality is that he could not win a Republican primary in his home state next year.

Noonan's  column continues," Republicans need less enforcement and more encouragement. The people inside can't always be kicking people out of the tent. A great party cannot live by constantly subtracting, by removing or shunning those who are not faithful to every aspect of its beliefs, or who don't accept every pole, or who are just barely fitting under the tent. Room should be made for them. Especially in those cases when Republican incumbents and candidates are attempting to succeed in increasingly liberal states, a certain practical sympathy is in order.

In the party now there is too much ferocity, and bloody-mindedness. 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. "Shrink to win": I've never heard of that as a political slogan.

Is it fully mature, and truly protective toward America, to be so politically exclusionary?"