An Unlikely Supporter of Centrists

According to a Daily Kos post, the far-lefty site participated today in a conference call with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) regarding the filibuster.

First, The Yellow Line is greatly unnerved by the thought of Daily Kos influencing policy in any manner. That said, this issue is actually alerting the “you’re-not-a-Democrat-unless-you’re-a-far-left-Democrat” crowd to the usefulness of centrists.

As Daily Kos says:

Apparently, there are a core of sane Republican Senators who realize the irreparable damage that would be caused by Frist's going "nuclear." These Republicans Senators appear to be Sens. McCain of Arizona, Chafee of RI, Snowe of Maine, Hagel of Nebraska, Collins of Maine, Sununu of New Hampshire, Smith of Oregon, Graham of South Carolina, Lugar of Indiana, Specter of Pennsylvania, Warner of Virginia.

As Democrats (or most of us anyway), there can be no doubt that we disagree much more than we agree with the above listed Republican Senators. But it would be wrong of us not to acknowledge and applaud the integrity, love of country and political courage these Senators are exhibiting in this situation. The political pressure they are facing must be enormous.

In politics, “integrity” is when a member of the opposite party sides with your party. But (and I’m not sure we’ve ever said this at TYL) Kos is right. The group of centrist Republicans that are opposed to the nuclear option are showing a level of common sense not often seen in today’s politics.

And that’s the value of centrism—an ability to see clearly and hold firm to personal convictions when your party is jumping into the deep end of partisan foolishness. It’s highly unlikely the denizens of Daily Kos will ever tolerate centrists in their own party, but this little moment of clarity on their part shows that even wingers realize: it’s centrists that keep this country sane.