Here and there, Republicans are moody, disconsolate, resentful. The not-very-happy are led by immigration fetishists, so unrelenting for an absolute remedy to Mexican illegal aliens — and incensed that George Bush, as pledged in 2000, governs contra — that they have in numbers threatened to leave the party, disavow the president and by consequence permit Democrats the White House and Congress. Wartime national security would be traded for vindication, while the new immigration policy thrown in would be Mr. Bush's times two, without the reservations — and these disgruntled rightists could get even madder.
Peggy Noonan, who went on sabbatical in 2004 to assist the president's reelection campaign, signed off on what, in the Wall Street Journal last Friday, read like a discursive letter on fraternal ennui does before simplification, by the editors of Dear Abby, to an intelligible five sentences. No more about "great relief to see there are actually a number of little fish like you, trying hard to swim upstream" athwart "left-liberalism reigns." Ms. Noonan notices that President Bush "doesn't seem to be suffering" from second-term disappointments. She finds "the seemingly effortless high spirits," the equanimity, "jarring."
Such are explosions of passion. Those waylaid by creation's great check on rational thought have forgotten, or simply ignore, rules of political geography: if a president acts, it may be that Jane happens to approve yet Missy does not; and then the other way around tomorrow. This is not politics but the disparate opinions of two or more people. If Missy or Jane react to disagreements with a furor, the deduction is: they want a sweetheart, not a statesman, and once they get it, will be mercurial as any lover.
Segments of the Republican base aren't pleased at a number of officeholders for many good reasons. But a lot construe idle congressmen or senators as more than figures of synecdoche, demanding that the whole party go.
How to deny re-election to Senator Chuck Hagel, knowing that Rhode Island elected a man even more recalcitrant than Lincoln Chafee? Or to Senator George Voinovich, after a double-take of Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown? Nebraska's attorney general, Jon Bruning, is preparing for a primary challenge to Hagel. Bruning relays that "Al-Qaeda has declared Iraq a major front in their global campaign," and as for Baghdad's government, "Benchmarks may be established to measure progress and develop strategic goals but should not be used as a part of a timeline to force an early surrender" — none of which you will ever hear Hagel say. He's pretty good on borders and taxes, too.
Jon Bruning is to Hagel as Stephen Laffey was to Chafee, and Pat Toomey was to Arlen Specter. Are malcontents serious about applying pressure to Republican points of leverage? Or are they in a rage, and can't think straight?