Jonah Goldberg on 'Specter the rat'

A thoughtful analysis of where the Republican Party has been and where it's going by Jonah Goldberg who contrasts conservative icon Jack Kemp with Arlen Specter, the RINO who recently defected to the Democrats.

From Goldberg's column:

Compare and contrast two men: former congressmen Jack Kemp, one of the architects of the Reagan Revolution, who passed away last weekend at the age of 73; and Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania senator who switched parties to stay alive politically for another term. Specter is famous for believing whatever he needs to "believe" to get elected. Dour, Dickensian and mercenary, he is regarded by observers across the aisle as a relentless partisan for the Party of Specter. Kemp, meanwhile, was a man of ideas and relentless, unflagging optimism, beloved on both sides of the aisle. For Kemp, the bigger the pile of manure, the more likely there was a Christmas pony somewhere. With Specter, spreading manure is always its own reward.

Goldberg argues the GOP's future is in moving more toward the conservative principles espoused by Jack Kemp and his mentor, Ronald Reagan, not in moving in the direction of the feckless Arlen Specter.

"The real answer for the GOP isn't to narrow the differences between the parties but to heighten them," Goldberg writes. "Conservatism's greatest achievements have arisen from giving Americans a 'choice, not an echo,' as Goldwater famously put it."

Read the full column, "What Does the Future Hold for GOP?" at Townhall.com