Reagan: “Uh, Al, isn’t this what the whole thing was all about?”
Haig: “What do you mean?”
Reagan: “Well, isn’t not going along with something that is ‘really stupid’ just because 150 nations had done so what the whole thing was all about — our running, our winning, our governing?”

A stunned Mr. Haig folded up his briefing book and promised to find out how to stop the treaty altogether.”–New York Sun, Nov. 8, 2007

E.J. Dionne makes an in-kind contribution to the Scozzafava campaign, couching it the now-patented and fey “more sorrow than anger“-mode of giving Republicans helpful advice.

“We win when we are us,” Armey told the right-wing blog Red State in explaining his support for Hoffman. It’s a revealing statement. The “us” Armey has in mind isn’t big enough to encompass people like Castle and Kirk, let alone the scores of moderate suburbanites who once felt comfortable in the Republican Party of George H.W. Bush. …With the moderate Scozzafava’s support in apparent collapse, Hoffman has a chance to win next month. Right-wingers will cheer, but the result would be bad news for the Republican Party. It will keep them on a path that Newt Gingrich knows is unsustainable, even if Dick Armey doesn’t.

Thanks for the help, Dianne, but Steyn has it covered:

After the great summer surge of town halls and tea parties, the Republican Party gets to take the first electoral test of the new public mood and what does it offer the public for a reliable Republican district? A pro-tax pro-card-check liberal Republican as liberal as the liberal Democrat but, unlike the latter, unable even to articulate her positions without calling in the constabulary.

This isn’t RINO but DIABLO – Democrat In All But Label Only. It’s not one of those “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” bi-swinger deals — not when you’re pro-”stimulus”, pro-cash-for-clunkers. And the reductive argument that her sole redeeming value – a willingness to vote for John Boehner as Speaker — is reason enough to support her is silly in a special election. If he’s ever Speaker, Boehner won’t be till January 2011, and it’s 12 months premature for Newt to be telling voters they need to suck it up and accept that a handful of Jim-Jeffords-in-embryo-form are necessary for the Republican tide.

There’s room in the Republican Party for a Jerry Ford…but a Gerry Ferraro? And certainly not a Jerry Rubin. But when we really want to win elections and rebuild America, we need foremost Ronald Reagans.

Along with Dionne, the Frum-p Wumps say “Stop Shooting RINOS”:

The population that Reagan reached out to in the 80’s is getting older and replacing them is a new group of kids who grew up in the 90’s. Most of these kids know very little about Reagan, but they are very familiar with the Clintons and now Bush. This new voter group is internet savvy; write daily on blogs and communicate through text messaging. The GOP’s old “my way or the highway” is destroying the party’s image and turning off young and potential new voters.

As if Lincoln Chaffee were the answer and not part of the problem. Chaffee told voters how rotten the GOP was…until they finally agreed and kicked him out of office for the real thing. If kids don’t get Reagan principles, then it’s our job to teach them. It’s one thing to say moderates are welcome; it’s another to say liberals get to run both parties.

Put another way;

“Electing a Nancy Pelosi Democrat doesn’t make sense and electing a Republican who’ll vote with Nancy Pelosi makes even less.”