In the good old days when the Grand Old Party was truly grand, crossing the oceans by ocean liner was still quite popular. Fortunately for the Republican Party of today, that is not the case. If it were, there would only be an all too public demonstration of their leadership's expertise at missing the boat.

As I write this, we are only a couple of days away from the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional seat. The Republican anointed candidate, Dierdre Scozzafava, apparently seeing the writing on the wall, has withdrawn from the race. This leaves Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman to fight it out. Prior to Scozzafava's withdrawal from the race, the head of the RNC felt that if either she or Hoffman won, it would be a victory for the Republican Party. Well, yes and no.

Should Hoffman win the race, he may well follow the path other New York State Conservatives have taken and switch his party to Republican, once in office. In that case, the RNC leadership can say, "whoopee, aren't we great at running the show!" Even though the power brokers of the New York State Republican Party did their best to get their version of Democratic Light into office. Of course, that might be what the RNC wanted in the first place. With Hoffman turning Republican, it would be a hollow victory for the conservative Republicans, because it would only be a further demonstration of the Republican Party doing what it has learned to do best, and that happens to be - reacting. With 40% of Americans identifying themselves as conservative, you would think that somebody running the boat in their party would begin to get the message. Unfortunately, reading messages is not exactly their strong point.

Which brings us to the circumstance where Hoffman, should he win, decides to stay with the Conservative Party. Staying with the party which brought him to the dance would be, well, the proper thing to do. It would also show that the Conservative Party is something other than Republican Heavy. No longer would they be seen as the Party used by Republicans who could not get their own party's endorsement. It would be the first step, albeit little more than a baby step, towards true legitimacy.

Doug Hoffman, should you be fortunate enough to be elected, go to the back of the ship and wave to the Republicans who are standing on the pier and wondering how they, once more, missed the boat.