Specter Is No Barometer

From Kimberly A. Strassel at the Wall Street Journal:
Had the GOP last year allowed Mr. Specter to pen the entire party platform to his liking, he'd still have bailed this week. The Pennsylvanian has only ever been purely ideological on one issue: the polls. . . .
The point here being that Mr. Specter isn't necessarily a good indicator of how open, or not, the GOP is to "ideological" diversity. As it happens, the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate that Mr. Specter is now so unwilling to be "judged" by didn't suddenly turn against him because he was pro-choice (he always has been) or pro trial-lawyer (ditto). He got in trouble after he voted for the blowout $787 billion stimulus bill. (More on that later.)
That's not to say the GOP doesn't need to work this through, and soon. But to do it productively, as one wise Republican put it to me, the GOP needs to be "clear about the difference between philosophy and message." The party is currently in trouble because the party lost its principles. Overspending, earmarks, corruption and policy drift undermined Republican claims to be the party of reform.
With a popular president now branding the GOP as the "party of no," there will be a strong Republican temptation to cut deals on health-care or energy, hoping to get credit for bipartisanship, or for making policies less bad. But the GOP will never win running as a less enthusiastic version of big-government Democrats. Washington votes are the only way for congressional Republicans to actually demonstrate a philosophy to voters, and it is here the party must reclaim its mantle of the party of limited government and entrepreneurship.
This is different from a message of outreach, which the party also desperately needs, but is accomplished primarily in the field. It involves members explaining to younger constituents why old-fashioned principles of choice and freedom still work for modern problems like health care. It means transmitting a welcome to those attracted to even one part of the conservative philosophy -- free markets, strong national security, social values -- even if not all. It requires recruiting candidates who aren't held to stiff litmus tests, but who have a shot of winning in the Northeast, say, or Illinois.
Trying to mold this thinking around Arlen Specter will only prove an exercise in confusion. It already is.