In the heat of the push to vote articles of impeachment on President Nixon, then Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Peter Rodino admonished his Democrat colleagues, "let us look before we leap."
In that one tried and true phrase, an old guard New Jersey Democrat at the height of Democrat control of the House and white hot hate of Nixon stepped back and attempted to tamper down the behavior of his own for a moment of reflection, restraint and ultimately reason.
We are in the heat of our own days before this election. Gov. Palin did not handle the inquiry on court decisions with aplomb. This does not merit scholastic or intellectual review at this moment of her by other conservatives.
Perhaps every conservative writer, talker, thinker in our community could have immediately reeled off wrongful court decisions back to repudiation of the substantive due process line of cases but it is not the time to start the post mortems now.
It is not orthodoxy that is at play. It is the fight and the win. When you are in a firefight, you do not rage out against Colt for the performance of your "AR." You 'tap, rack' and fire. This is the way of victory.
There is a time and place for being clever and astute. The foxhole and the frenzy of the waning days of the campaign are best played as engagement and not introspection.
Conservatives are not cult members. We are not aligned on all issues. However, restraint is our predicate and we can do better than degrade our own.
Mr. Rodino's admonition might be a good constraint for all conservatives as we lock and load in this fight.