I had to chuckle when I read this recent article today by Peter Brown, author for RealClearPolitics, concerning his notion that “moderation” may be the new religion for the Republican Party. I am not overly familiar with Mr. Brown’s writings so I do not know if he possesses a leftist bias in which he yearns daily for a moderate GOP or if he has just drawn the wrong conclusions based on poor test subjects. Whatever the case may be, it’s easy to dissect the flaws in his logic.

Although moderation is in the eye of the beholder and difficult to define, the GOP message and messenger are much more likely than in the recent past to be less beholden to, or a member of, the party’s strongly conservative wing.

There are two reasons why:

* The background and views of the two leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Let’s start with the first set, which I have to add, am quite surprised he would even hold up as evidence for his conclusion. Anybody who is involved in even the most remote political circles knows why McCain and Giuliani are the front runner for 2008 at this point in time. John McCain is a darling and whore of the media. You can barely turn your television on without hearing his name or seeing his face. He’s got the reputation of being a Senate maverick which promotes his image with an American people frustrated with polarizing, partisan politics. However, Senator McCain turns 71 this year and he is looking it. Additionally, his fund raising has been suffering as of late and I have no doubt that he’ll fade out by the time the primaries roll around. His day was in the past.

As for Giuliani, he is clearly the front runner due to his 9-11 reputation as “America’s Mayor”. Come on, everyone knows this. If he weren’t in the right place at the right time most people would have never even heard of the guy. Once the primaries get closer and his liberal social views get more exposed he will drop in the polls, however, he could still prevail because of his hawkishness on the War On Terror. It just depends how many Republicans make that issue their number one priority during the 2008 primaries. Rudy could come out on top if Republicans are more concerned about his foreign and defense policies rather than social issues. Either way, there is no endorsement of moderation by the people anywhere here.

* The lesson that may lie in the success of GOP governors with high approval ratings. Florida’s Charlie Crist, California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and Connecticut’s Jody Rell are thriving with a vision that features a larger role for government.

This second set of examples are even poorer choices than the first. Throwing Crist aside as I know nothing about the man’s politics, it’s easy to debunk Schwarzenegger and Rell as evidence of welcoming a moderate GOP. California might be the most leftist state in the country, though it’s getting heavy competition from Massachusetts these days. Anyone to the right of Joseph Stalin is a conservative in California so while Arnold may be a moderate in the eyes of the rest of us, he is Barry Goldwater in the Golden State. As for Rell, Connecticut is similar, though not as extreme. Connecticut is one of the most wealthy states in the country full of liberal elitist snobs who firmly believe it is the government’s duty to redistribute that wealth because they have bought into the Marxist tripe that they should feel guilty and ashamed of their success. Hence, it is quite unlikely that these folks are going to take a small government and social conservative Republican under their wings. Rell is a good fit for what the people of Connecticut desire.

If Mr. Brown had been capable of producing left leaning Republicans who were popping up in states that are grounded in firmly right wing politics, then he may have had a point worth looking into. Since he could only point out the obvious, that leads me to believe that this article was written with an agenda in mind. Let’s also not forget that we lost far more so called “moderates” from our ranks in 2006 than staunch conservatives.

So, move along folks; there is nothing to see here.