Tommywonk’s current post from Denver reminds us how far partisan zealots like Dave Burris have driven the Republican party away from it’s historic brand ID.
Several Republicans will step up to the podium tonight, including former Iowa congressman Jim Leach, who recently retired as director of Harvard’s Institute for Politics. I had a chance to talk with him and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post last night. Leach, who wears a red sweater even in August, contrasted the current adventurism of Bush and Cheney with the sense of restraint that prevailed during Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency. He pointed out that Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne only once in his eight years—and that was to Little Rock, Arkansas when nine black students enrolled at Central High School.