The Party of Discipline

I have been bleating on about this since theater critic Frank Rich's intemperate-stroke-incoherent column about the "Stalinists" opposing Dede Scozzfava, but here is yet another example of a sinister political party purging its more moderate members:

Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is out as keynote speaker for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party's annual fund-raising dinner next week because party leaders dislike her stance on health care reform, county Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel said today.

Landrieu, a moderate who recently described herself as "extremely concerned about a government-run, taxpayer-funded, national public plan," has not committed to voting to cut off a likely Republican filibuster and forcing a vote on the legislation.

Democrats need 60 votes to invoke "cloture" and force a vote.

"We just didn't want to have a keynote speaker who's not committed to cloture. It would have just been wrong," said Siegel, who said party higher-ups and rank-and-file members had voiced displeasure with the choice of Landrieu as a keynoter.

Full story. This, incidentally, is referred to by its practitioners as enforcing "party discipline," which is rather different than a "plan to purge moderates."