Are you happy with the state of your party?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Not happy at all.  We need to get back to our populist roots.  We are no longer the party of the working class, and the American people know it.  We've sold them out.

0 Republicans and 25 Democrats voted against the bankruptcy bill in the Senate. That's a bare majority of the Democrats, which is pathetic, but still much better than the Republicans.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I am happy because my expectations are realistic.  I accept having NY Times Republicans like Chafee, Collins, and Snowe because I've decided that the price we pay for being the Majority Party is that we have to put up with people who maybe care more than they should what Tom Friedman thinks about them.  The Democrats have purged almost all of their moderates, and they're losing for it.

Say what? Ben Nelson is far more moderate than any Republican.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Miller is one scary Democrat, though. 

While he's more conservative than most, if not all, his former Democratic Senate colleagues, he was a pretty good Democratic governor - I even heard Howard Dean say that

I'd have happily voted for him as a Democrat and I still think there is a place for moderare populist conservatives, like Zell, in the Democratic Party. My liberal fellow Democrats might not agree with me on that though

Dave

Zell was no moderate. He said the 9/11 commission was only enabling the terrrorists. That indicates a total g wingnut to me. How the f**ck are we supposed to prevent the next 9/11 if we don't look into how this one happened? And why should someone from Georgia tell NY that they don't deserve to know why 9/11 happen when NY subsidizes Georgia?

He had a higher ACU rating last year than Allen and  Frist and the same as Santorum, a 96.

And no this isn't just social issues, Zell Miller sucked ass on economic issues and foreign policy.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Not really. The Republicans are too dominated by southern populists, who don't give a damn about the economy and run on social issues only. Doesn't anyone remember Reagan, who actually held non-defense spending down in the eighties? How about Barry 'I don't care if our soldiers are straight, as long as they shoot straight' Goldwater? 

I completely agree. The economic illiterates of the fundamentalist bloc have succeeded in making the GOP lurch to the left on economics and right on social issues. W. is the ideal man for those "populists", but true conservatives are going to have to look elsewhere.

Left on economic issues? I don't think so. Every single Republican Senator voted for the bankruptcy bill.