Yesterday I informed you of a group of liberal and moderate Republicans called Come Back To The Mainstream who have placed an ad in a number of national newspapers calling on the GOP to move back to the middle on a number of issues. This was a highly significant moment as this group included former Senators and Governors who still hold clout in their states.

The chorus of "Rockefeller" Republicans who find the current direction of their party abhorrent is evidently growing at an alarming rate. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, who will be remembered by history as the only African-American man to serve in the United States Senate in the 20th century and the first African-American elected to the Senate by popular vote, has penned an op-ed in today's edition of The New York Times, which is a definite must-read. He begins with this:

As the Republicans gather this week in New York, I find myself thinking back to the first Republican National Convention I attended, 40 years ago, at which Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona received the presidential nomination. At the time I was the attorney general of Massachusetts and opposed the rise of Goldwater conservatism, aligning myself with many national party leaders. I supported Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York for the nomination and, after he withdrew from the race, Gov. William Scranton of Pennsylvania.

Despite our efforts, Senator Goldwater won the nomination, and in the general election proceeded to carry only his home state and five states in the South. It was a resounding defeat for his brand of "conservatism," and it was devastating to the Republican Party at every level of government.

I see alarming parallels between that disastrous convention of 1964 and this week's convention, at which President Bush will be nominated again. Now as then, many of the candidate's advisers and supporters show signs of arrogance, self-righteousness and intolerance, and of losing touch with the basic values of the vast majority of Americans. This extremism shows itself in any number of ways: excesses committed by the Justice Department under the Patriot Act, unilateralism in international affairs, crude political tactics in the Senate that have produced legislative gridlock and made a mockery of that chamber's great tradition of bipartisanship.

The parallel Brooke draws here is damning on two levels. First, it implies that this Bush Administration is as extreme and non-mainstream as Barry Goldwater some 40 years ago. Also inherent in this message is that the continued embrace of such radical positions and pompous campaign tactics will inevitably lead to disaster on the scale of the 1964 catastrophe.

Barry Goldwater's fate was sealed when, in his address to the 1964 convention, he defiantly endorsed "extremism." Later, when I served in the Senate, I came to know Barry Goldwater and to count him a friend, but at the 1964 convention he was intoxicated by ideology - and it led to disaster. Now as then, instead of alienating mainstream voters with radical views, our party must find common ground with them.

I believe in the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan, and I want it to succeed. I devoutly hope our party will show America a more open mind and a more generous heart this week, and that President Bush will reflect this message in his acceptance speech to the nation.

Like Senator Brooke (whose seat is currently held by none other than John Kerry), I am skeptical that President Bush will truly embrace moderation, even if he has surrounded himself with moderates at this convention. The American people are not too dumb to realize that this President is among the most radically conservative in our nation's history, but the real question is if our media are smart enough to figure this out, too. God help us if they fall for this charade by the President.