"In the United States Senate, Arlen Specter and I were both part of something called the Wednesday Group -- a regular meeting of moderate Republicans who gathered once a week over lunch and to discuss policy and plot strategy. When I first arrived in 1979, there were about 20 to 25 Senators at the lunch each week. By the time I left the Senate in 1997, there were about five regular attendees."

This is sad to me. I'm not sure when the guy who says he's seen the GOP in worse shape thought he saw that - in my lifetime, I've never seen the GOP in as much danger of becoming an irrelevant fringe party as it is today.

Moderates are being pushed out of the party. If you don't fit into a rigid narrow box, you're no longer welcomed in the Republican party. Democrats have a democratic socialist (Bernie Sanders),liberals, moderates, and conservatives (blue dogs). We don't always agree but we are more representative of the country as a whole.

Completely agree with the comments above. I've heard more than one educated person say that the Republicans are in danger of becoming as relevant as the Green Party.