Unprincipled Moderates

Douthat has no love for Crist, Specter, or Bayh:

All three were frequently praised for their moderation by credulous reporters, and their political difficulties were constantly cited as evidence that the American political system had gone haywire. But none of the three deserved their favorable ink, because none of them used their position as moderates constructively. Instead, they enter retirement as the most prominent exhibits in the case that the nation’s centrists need to share the blame, where our current difficulties are concerned, with the ideologues on either side.