In the past few days leading up to the Republican National Convention, a number of articles have been written lamenting the direction of the GOP. The New York Times' usually apologetic "conservative" David Brooks makes the case in this weekend's magazine that the party must create a new vision for America (which he lays out). Garrison Keillor, the host of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion, writes another interesting column on current Republican extremism. Additionally, I wrote a post yesterday lamenting the demise of the liberal/moderate wing of the Republican Party, a eulogy of sorts.

While I think all of these pieces are worth reading, they do not come from "real" Republicans; Brooks is the Alan Colmes of the right, Keillor is a self-proclaimed liberal, and I like to think of myself as a left of center moderate. As a result, it would be foolish to believe that anything written by us, or others like us for that matter, would have any tangible effect on the Republican Party.

A new group of voices that actually matter have joined us in beckoning the GOP to "come back to the mainstream." The AP is reporting that a group of former high ranking Republicans is calling on their party to move back to the center.

"Instead of partisan ideology — which increasingly has led moderates to leave the party — what's needed is a speedy return to the pragmatic, problem-solving mainstream," the group called Mainstream 2004 said in newspaper advertisements to be published Monday.

The "Come Back To The Mainstream" ads say what many moderate Republicans are thinking, said A. Linwood Holton, who was Virginia governor from 1970-74.

The problem lies with the "extremist element that controls the Republican party," Holton said, "which has polarized this country."

These are certainly strong words coming from a politician of such stature.

Among other things, the group is calling on the Republican Party to stop weakening environmental law, to start imposing stringent budget discipline to curtail deficits, to allow and promote embryonic stem cell research, and to appoint mainstream judges.

The way the party is now, Holton said he wouldn't vote for President Bush. "Not unless they change substantially between now and November," he said.

The list of Republicans signing the ad [includes] former GOP Govs. David Cargo of New Mexico, Dan Evans of Washington, A. Linwood Holton of Virginia, William Milliken of Michigan, Walter Peterson of New Hampshire; former U.S. Sens. Charles Mathias of Maryland and Robert Stafford of Vermont; and Nathaniel Reed, former assistant Interior Secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and Russell Train, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Another interesting story on this group appears in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune that adds a local touch to the issue (which is even more interesting as Minnesota is a "swing state"). Addressing the response of several Minnesota Republicans to Mainstream 2004's ad, Lori Sturdevant writes:

Former Gov. Elmer L. Andersen also declined [to sign the ad] -- even though he was a personal friend of the late Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, an uncle of the ad's instigator, Larry Rockefeller.

It's naive, Andersen explained, to think that a plea from a roster of former party luminaries would change the thinking of the people in charge at the New York convention.

Further, Andersen said, the ad's critique and prescription for change do not go far enough. It does not explicitly mention the war in Iraq, which he calls a "mistake, entered into under false information." It does not oppose the "enormous tax break for the wealthiest people" that Bush engineered. It does not fault Bush's No Child Left Behind act for "failure to produce the promised results."

"The Republican Party is not the progressive engine that I was associated with," said Andersen, who was governor from 1961 to 1963. "I'm going to vote for John Kerry."

Those are brave words -- even for a 95-year-old whose ties to his party have been conspicuously attenuated for a few decades. It isn't easy for a politician who once drank deeply from one party's trough to publicly say he prefers the other.

[...]

"Undecided" is also the stated status of two other Minnesota GOP elder statesmen with well-known moderate bent, former U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger and former state Sen. George Pillsbury. (George's wife, Sally -- a Republican stalwart since 1946 and a college friend of the president's aunt -- is not as tentative. She says flatly, "I'm not voting for Bush." The president's support for a same-sex marriage ban was for her the last straw.)

Durenberger said choosing between Bush and Kerry is the "most challenging" ballot decision he has ever faced.

"It's a hell of a time to be a moderate Republican," said [Rod] Searle, a former House speaker.

The big story that the mainstream media has yet to pick up is the fact that a large number of moderate Republicans and Rockefeller Republicans are so fed up with their party that they won't support George W. Bush's reelection bid, a movement that if much more significant than the upcoming speech of turncoat Zell Miller. Hopefully when this ad comes out it will make as big of a splash as the Swiftvets' ad, because it is much more meaningful, but I'm sure the talking heads and pundits will ignore the story as they do most that are critical of this President.

Would that it were... would that it were.