Republicans: Let's Play Grown-Up

Wow. Great column yesterday in the Wall Street Journal by conservative [did ya hear that?] Peggy Noonan, who basically says that Republicans need to start acting serious and, well, like adults.

Some, and they are idiots, look at Judge Sotomayor and say: attack, attack, kill. A conservative activist told the New York Times, "We need to brand her." Another told me a fight is needed to excite the base.

Excite the base? How about excite a moderate, or interest an independent? How about gain the attention of people who aren't already on your side?

The base is plenty excited already, as you know if you've ever read a comment thread on a conservative blog. Comment-thread conservatives, like their mirror-image warriors on the left ("Worst person in the woooorrrlllddd!") are perpetually agitated, permanently enraged. They don't need to be revved, they're already revved. Newt Gingrich twitters that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. Does anyone believe that? He should rest his dancing thumbs, stop trying to position himself as the choice and voice of the base in 2012, and think.

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The choice for Republicans isn't between "attack" and "roll over." It's broader than that, and more interesting. There's a new and fresh opportunity here for Republicans in the Senate to be serious, and, in their seriousness, to be seen and understood in a new light.

Serious opposition to Judge Sotomayor is not only fair, it's necessary: It's your job to oppose if you oppose. But it should be serious, not merely partisan. Mr. Obama himself well knows he voted against John Roberts and Sam Alito only in essence because they were conservative. He was planning a presidential run and playing to a left-wing base. But that didn't enhance his reputation, did it? Not with anyone who wasn't part of his base.

Noonan ends with a suggestion for Republicans to start respecting the American people.

This might be a good time for them to rediscover their faith in the American people, in their ability to listen, weigh and think. That thinking may not always show up immediately in polls, but it adds up in time and has its own weight, its own force, and future.

Trust them. They're grown-ups, even if they don't always dress the part.

Be serious and they'll listen and think? Well, I don't know if I totally agree with that given that this is a nation of "Deal or No Deal" program viewers and 2-term Bush voters, but I couldn't agree more with Noonan that the Conservative Party's opposition has to rise above the gutter level that it now occupies. They are the opposition party and they're expected to oppose but there is no room for racism and the level of discourse that they have lowered themselves to in the last 5 months. It's bad for politics, it's bad for this country and, even if they themselves don't realize it, it's bad for the future of the Republican Party.

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