who are Goldwater's Panhandle heirs, John?

Toward the end of this morning's hagiographic column about Barry Goldwater ("Where have you gone, Sen. Goldwater?"), John Kanelis veers off into hagiography of one of his favoritist Panhandlians, Rep. Mac Thornswiffle of Clarendon-wherever-the-hell-that-is. John spends 457 words on the unremarkable argument that Barry Goldwater would not be at home in the sordidly hypocritical Republican party of Mark Foley, David Vitter, and, most recently, Larry Craig. For what it's worth I agree-- and would add that Goldwater, for whom I've always had a soft spot (and I'm not alone), would differ from these Republicans on more than hypocrisy. The cantankerous and contrarian Senator would likely be the type of libertarian who would not be afraid to point out that the Republicans had become the party of government interference. Late in life, he was even able to take his live-and-let-live philosophy to its logical conclusion and support pro-choice and pro-gay rights positions. By the 1980s, he had come to hate the religious right and once said that "[e]very good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass." As I've said before, "Mr. Conservative" went to his grave a good, solid liberal.

It's too late to kick Falwell's ass. His evil spawn have taken over Christianity to the point that a large chuck of the faith is no longer recognizable and should be renamed. They've also taken over much of our government, but, according to Kanelis, Thornawful and the Panhandle delegation oppose this takeover:

OK, not all conservative Republicans are hypocrites. Many of them, such as Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, are Boy Scouts.

But Thornberry and other Texas and Panhandle Republicans are being pulled by the temptation to place morality at the front rank of important issues. More than one Panhandle Republican has grumbled privately in recent years about the hijacking of the state party by its far-right wing that sets up socially conservative litmus tests to determine who are the most faithful Republicans.

Um, come again? Pampa's Warren Chisum is the poster boy for "the hijacking of the state party by its far-right wing that sets up socially conservative litmus tests to determine who are the most faithful Republicans." If Kanelis' Opinion page has condemned Chisum for this, I haven't seen it.

But maybe Kanelis wasn't writing about Chisum. His piece seems to imply that Thornquagmire is upset about the far right wing. I doubt that myself, but Kanelis certainly implies it.

But he also said "more than one". So who are they? These people are not your friends, John. As a member of the press you're supposed to have a somewhat adversarial relationship with them. Name us some names.

spacedark