Twilight of the moderate Republicans

Republican Congressman Stephen LaTourrette announced suddenly this week that he is no longer a candidate for reelection. He has given up on the dysfunctional Congress.

As he told a news conference:

"The change that I’ve noticed is, it used to be there was Election Day and then there was governance. You fight like cats and dogs on election time and then you govern,” LaTourette said in a press conference at his district office in Painesville. Not so now, he said: “For a long time now, words like compromise have been considered to be dirty words. And there are people on the right and the left who think that if you compromise you’re a coward, you’re a facilitator, you’re an appeaser.”

The 9-term lawmaker was a moderate, a dying breed in the Republican party. It's a shame for the party and the country that lawmakers who believe in governance and not just campaigning arebeing driven away by the radicals.