A good friend and longtime McCain supporter e-mails:

Kathryn, honestly, I am shocked that you wrote this – “And while I have no idea, I wouldn’t be shocked if people stay home in November if the GOP nominee is someone who’s more comfortable with Joe Lieberman’s politics (God bless him) than Rush Limbaugh’s.” – The right now sounds like a mirror image of Kos.

During further conversation, the aforementioned friend added:

to use Lieberman to attack McCain is disgusting – when Mitt was clearly hedging his bets, Lieberman and McCain defied the left and the media to take a courageous stand on the central issue of our day – apparently, some on the right care as much about success in Iraq as the left.

The idea, of course, that to defend Romney on the war and to criticize McCain (and Lieberman?) on anything is to seek defeat in Iraq strikes me as unfair and verging on ridiculous. The point in my piece earlier today, in The Corner yesterday, to my friend earlier, and to you right now is: Romney wasn’t the leader that McCain was on the surge, but he also wasn’t and isn’t the enemy on Iraq. Let’s not pretend he is. There was a true dishonesty to McCain’s approach this weekend and it’s disturbing to me that we apparently can’t discuss First Principles and actual policy issues during a primary without jumping to dramatic and insulting conclusions.

I’d like to think these primary discussions about conservatism are good for the movement and the Republican party. And I’ve yet to hear anyone in my circles sound like Kos or be willing to surrender on the war because they don’t trust McCain’s political temperament.

UPDATE: I’ll let my McCain-supporting friend have the last word: “to excommunicate McCain who has a conservative voting record and who was a stalwart on the central issue of our day is unfair.”