The lines are drawn in the GOP.
Palin, Pindal, Cheney, and Huckabee want to toss out the moderates and stick to the far-right tenets of the party.
Tom Ridge, Charlie Crist, Mitt Romney, Jeb, and Cantor want to try to draw back those moderates, to reclaim those independents who have jumped at a 3-to-1 ratio to (I) status since the election.
Which side is right? Do they soften their stances and bring the moderates back? Or do they stick to their guns, even though the issues they hold dear are becoming less important to Americans?
Huckabee: GOP could become 'irrelevant as the Whigs'
In an interview with the California newspaper The Visalia Times-Delta, Huckabee said the GOP would only further decline in influence should it alienate social conservatives — largely considered the most energetic and loyal faction of the party.
"Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs," he said in reference to the American political party that largely disbanded in the mid 1800s.
"They'll basically be a party of gray-haired old men sitting around the country club puffing cigars, sipping brandy and wondering whatever happened to the country. That will be the end of the party," he said in the interview published Thursday.
