Ramesh — who seems like he’s not in the best of moods (in my case, that always has to do with how the baby is sleeping) — tasks me for making an ironic comment about internecine fighting over the Hyde Amendment when all the evidence suggests the GOP is a leaky boat taking on water.

For the record, I support the Hyde Amendment. Also for the record, I think Rudy Giuliani is in the process of bungling a very delicate effort he was managing brilliantly before last week — making what might be considered a grande-entente with social conservatives.

The thing is, Ramesh, the Right can spend the next 18 months having a grand old fight about first principles and chewing itself up in the process. As a policy wonk and lover of such battles, I’ll be in hog heaven, believe me. I really enjoyed our big confrontation last year over the natural law vs. religiously based question regarding stem cells and miscarriages.

But when political parties — political parties, not intellectual movements — engage in purity rituals regarding first principles, the end result is almost always disastrous. In this case, the end result will be Hillary in the White House (okay, or Obama). And a Democratic House. And a more Democratic Senate.

And then where will the Hyde Amendment be?