Of all the historical analogies a desperate GOP might summon up to defend Speaker Hastert, this one (via Hotline) penned by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas is certainly the most remarkable and obnoxious: the Alamo, 1836. 

Now I have no time for Alamo revisionists who want to make that battle into anything other than what it was: the brutal suppression of Texan secessionist rebels, giving them no quarter, by the army of a Mexican authoritarian ruler.  It is because I have great respect for the Texans and Tennesseans who fought at the Alamo that I find it particularly obnoxious that someone would have the nerve to compare the ludicrous GOP majority to the heroes of that battle.  “We, the House Republican Conference, ironically a little over 200 strong…,” Rep. Barton says, as if he were the new Travis and his colleagues in Congress were the volunteers.  It requires no courage to hang onto your positions of power, and there is no valour in defending incompetent leadership, which is what Republicans in Congress are doing when they rally around Hastert.  Barton continues: “We can cross the line and stand with our Speaker in defense of conservative values and common decency [italics mine-DL], or we can retreat.”  As the Derb might say (and did say in a different context), “That’s conservatism?  Ptui, I spit.”  

The obnoxious nature of this appeal is clear to all.  I don’t think I need to dwell on it.  Common decency dictates that Hastert step aside, if not because of his own flaws and failures, then for the good of the reputation of the institution; men of honour from another time might have understood why.  Here’s another point: where was all this line-in-the-sand, let’s-fight-them-to-the-death spirit when it mattered?  When it comes to fighting the creation of new entitlements or challenging executive overreach and violations of the separation of powers (think Iraq), where was the defense of high principle and Alamo nostalgia, then, eh?  Where was the defense of “conservative values and common decency” when it came time to vote on torture and aggressive war?  These people are a disgrace. 

Of course, as someone might note, comparing your present predicament to the Alamo might be inspiring to other people later on (“at least they went down fighting!”), but it does not hold out much hope for you, since it requires you to die in the effort.  For my part, I hope they get their battle to the political death.  They will not be lionised or remembered as heroes, but they will at least be out of power.