Do You Pass the GOP's Purity Test?

(Nov. 25) -- This week, the Republican National Committee sent out a new resolution to its members designed to weed out political moderates from the conservative ranks of the GOP.

Titled, the "RNC Resolution on [Ronald] Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates," the measure sets forth 10 "key policy positions" that define, in the opinion of the RNC, what it is to be a Republican.

Olivier Douliery, Abaca Press

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has threatened to withhold campaign funds for candidates who do not espouse conservative positions.

The list, which some political observers have called a "purity test," reads as follows:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like [President Barack] Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated policy position [sic] of the Republican National Committee, as identified by voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support by the Republican National Committee.

So, three strikes and you're out of the running for party funds. While some of the items on the list have broad enough appeal that many Democrats might find themselves agreeing with them, putting together seven out of 10 might indeed distinguish a conservative from a moderate or liberal. RNC members may vote on whether to formally adopt the resolution at a January meeting.