DECEMBER 23, 2008 --

Driving back to The Bronx from Torrington, Ct. the evening of December 18, LPR listened to Tammy Bruce (filling in for Laura Ingraham) excoriate the Republicans.

They weren't conservatives she said (with a few exceptions, like Sarah Palin). Ms. Bruce also criticized the GOP, and Newt Gingrich in particular, for lack of a vigorous response the attack from the left. She also suggested that Republican responses to attack are made considering the reaction to the response, not considering the conservative position.

LPR has long been criticizing the apparent willingness of Republicans to absorb oratorical blows from the left, rather than to refute them.

This writer has been making this point elsewhere since early 1995.

Two and a half years ago, LPR cited the suggestion of Richard Pipes, writing in the Fall 1984 issue of Foreign Affairs that a political party that becomes, elitist, distant from the voters, and lacking in "decisive leadership is in grave danger of losing control." Professor Pipes was referring to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

His words seem, now, to apply to the Republicans; LPR also hears the echo of Federalist 57 in Pipes' words.