And those who haven’t, have been driven right out of the republican party. Christopher Buckley is probably the biggest name, but the split became apparent with the nomination of Sarah Palin as the GOPs VP candidate last year. And as the inevitable and now infamous Palin media interviews started up, so did a number of Republicans — appalled by what she and her nomination represented — calling for her to step down.

Excellent point.

The question I have, then, is whether the GOP is going to force out people like Specter, Collins, Snowe, and Steele. It’s a long-shot, but we could see a viable “Old-Man Party” led by the likes of Specter, McCain, Lieberman, Graham, etc., that is more akin to the party of Eisenhower, Nixon, and Bush I than that of Reagan, Bush II, or Gingrich.