State GOP Would Rather We Just Not Talk About the National Platform

The state Republicans scheduled a Thursday vote to decide whether to adopt the national party’s platform, but at the meeting last night, they tabled the vote, probably because they closed their eyes and pictured both the local headlines that might ensue if they adopted the document’s hard-line on issues like abortion, and the national headlines if, for some reason, they didn’t. State Republicans, Sen. Scott Brown most prominent among them, have attacked national platform’s opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest, but the Globe reports that state Republicans seem to have feared alienating Tea Party activists in the state by breaking with it. So postponing any potential changes to a platform they adopted in 2010 seems like a savvy dodge, if not exactly a profile in courage. And in case you’re left wondering just what the state Republicans stand for, here’s Massachusetts GOP spokesman Tim Buckley, who tells the Telegram and Gazette, “Ultimately we all share one goal which is electing more Republicans in November.”  Good to know.