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Barry Goldwater accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1964 with the line that passed from his lips straight into history: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."
Do you remember Goldwater's next sentence? "And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
Goldwater got buried in a landslide, but his conservatism would find its true champion in Ronald Reagan. Politics has been edging rightward ever since.
Moderation has gone out of fashion in Florida, at least in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. The candidates are engaged in an elaborate dance to get to the right of each other. Nobody wants to be stuck in the middle, where a scarlet letter "M" awaits a doomed moderate.
It's part of the Reagan legacy. What used to be called moderate is now called liberal, and what used to be called conservative is now called moderate.
One moment this week said it all. Senate candidate Mel Martinez, President Bush's former housing secretary, was at an event accepting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's endorsement. It will help Martinez fend off charges by one of his Republican opponents, Bill McCollum, that he's a closeted liberal ex-trial lawyer - not a real conservative.
McCollum earned his conservative stripes long ago and was one of the House impeachment prosecutors of Bill Clinton. Martinez isn't there yet. He was once a Democrat. He opposes a $250,000 cap on legal fees in malpractice cases as too severe. He supports providing some medical services to legal immigrants, though he conceded in a forum in West Palm Beach this week: "It may not be popular."
That makes Martinez appear too, well, moderate. That is the wrong place to be in a Republican field that also includes state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, businessman Doug Gallagher and lawyer Larry Klayman, among others.
So when the chamber's man praised Martinez as a consensus-builder, a reporter said it sounded like they were making him out to be a moderate, and did he agree?
"No," Martinez said. "I think he's describing me as someone who can get something done."
Please, no mention of the M-word.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee this week tried to push the Republicans over the cliff, calling the entire bunch too "radical" and "extremist" to win in November. That's their hope. Deep down, the Democrats are pulling for McCollum or Byrd to grab the nomination.
The same moderate image that Martinez is running away from because it could ruin his chances in the primary enhances his electability in November. Martinez's supporters use a different word - "electable" - as code for moderate.
This is what happens in a primary. Candidates are so busy pandering to the extreme elements in their party that they run the risk of alienating the huge pool of voters in the middle. This danger is greater than ever in Florida because Republicans eliminated the runoff, or second primary, that used to steer candidates and voters to the same middle ground.
There was no runoff in the last Senate race four years ago. But it wasn't an issue because party leaders cleared the field for McCollum. He was seen as too conservative by general election voters and lost to Bill Nelson, a moderate Democrat.
By replacing the runoff with a winner-take-all primary on Aug. 31, Republicans have made elections more interesting but added another polarizing element to politics. The Republican Senate candidates are on a slippery slope that tilts to the right.
In September, one of them will have to crawl all the way back to the center.
- Steve Bousquet is the Times' deputy capital bureau chief.