Another Round of "You're So Reagan..."
Fred Thompson raised the rhetorical stakes of his otherwise lethargic campaign by saying that a struggle for the "heart and soul of the Republican party and its future" is underway. Then, demonstrating that he finds no candidate conservative enough not to lump with Mike Dukakis, Thompson proceeded to label Mike Huckabee a liberal in the mold of the Democratic party.
In a debate where significant time was devoted to questions about the party's adherence to the ideological formulas of its past, calling the man who claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses largely on the strength of fundamentalist, evangelical votes a liberal seems a bit out of place.
Nevertheless, such formulations have helped Republican candidates win elections with stunning regularity since 1980, and if last night's debate was any indication, the liberal label will again feature prominently in this cycle.
