ahh, pundits.

Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice:

Tea Party candidates have upset the Republican establishment. In an important sense, the GOP has now fully made the jump into a political party with a soul anchored in talk radio: sharing many of the views and speaking in the tone and sound bites of a Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or Sean Hannity. The political pros who juggled policies with ideology and formulas on how best to win by appealing to diverse groups are being edged out by true believers who believe that he or she who doesn’t embrace enough of the agenda needs to take a hike out of the party. It’s the next logical step on an ongoing exodus of moderates from the GOP, some intentionally and others being shoved to the door."

Yes, Joe. Yes. The term "moderate", when applied to Republicans, translates to "liberal". Mike Castle, the "moderate Republican" who was a favored pet of the Establishment voted for the exceedingly liberal Democrat agenda 70% of the time. If what you want is a bunch of "moderate" Republicans as the "opposition" party to the Democrats, what is the point in having two political parties? It would be just as effective to have one ruling party with subgroups for each set of interests.

But that's not what we have. We have a two party system and, although it has calcified into one large Establishment group, we do (still) have a second party to rebuff the agenda of the other, to represent the interests of the rest of the country. That's what its all about- representation.

The "political pros" you lovingly refer to were not representatives of their constituents, and the proof is evident in your choice of words. You say they "juggled policies with ideology and formulas on how best to win by appealing to diverse groups".

That's what it comes down to. Career politicians' main objective is to remain in power, which shifts their focus away from how best to serve their constituents to how best to win reelection. This becomes a problem when the campaign advisors are telling people, who should be doing what their constituents want, to pander to "diverse groups" in an effort to win liberal votes.

So, yes, there is an exodus of liberals from Republican ranks. They should switch to the liberal party, and if they don't, we'll vote them out of office.

MSNBC interviewd Vice President Joe Biden who said,

"It's real tough for the Republican Party... It's kind of hung on a shingle. You know, no moderates need apply. It's sort of spawned a ... tone in politics that is not helpful to getting things done."

Translation: It's real tough for the liberals in the Republican Party who work with my Democrats. No liberal Republicans need apply. It's a swelling of voters who are sick and tired of all of our bullcrap, and the conservatives that they're electing are not going to let us ramrod our agenda through the legislature anymore.

And its about time.