SANITY IN THE GOP – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  Political litmus tests surface regularly in American politics.  Try becoming a Democratic presidential candidate if you're pro-life.  But the GOP, which, like the Dems, has its own nut wing to worry about, is resisting efforts to introduce a formal litmus test in this election year.  From Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket blog:

It looks like the Republican Party won’t be taking names or testing blood samples.

Meeting behind closed doors in Honolulu this afternoon the resolutions committee of the Republican National Committee adopted a watered-down version of the so-called “purity” test advocated by insiders who wanted candidates to complete a check list—8 of 10 needed to pass—to receive financial or organizational help from the party's national controlling body.

The precise wording remains to be worked out.

But the gist is that candidates would have to pledge their fealty to the party platform—which is a lot less stringent than the original resolution sponsored by Indiana’s James Bopp, Jr., a longtime conservative activist.

“No checklist,” Bopp confirmed outside the committee room. “There’s none of that in the resolution.”

COMMENT:  That's dodging a bullet.  James Bopp Jr. represents a kind of rigid, old-style Republican who wants enforced ideological purity for candidates, often the death knell for political parties.  The  Dems have plenty of ideological tests, and I'm not sure we want to use them as an example of greatness. 

It's true that a political party cannot be an infinite tent.  It has to have core principles.  But there must be flexibility in advancing those princples.  Otherwise, the party will wind up meeting in a closet.

January 29, 2010