Peggy Noonan has decided that "standing for principles" and not voting for them is ... "grown-up."

Having written a book like this, them's fightin' words. Avoiding consequences, taking shortcuts, shirking responsibilities -- all comprise the m.o. of the hopelessly immature, a category fit for any US senator who, believing Justice should be blind and not a perpetual grievance avenger, votes to confirm Sonia Sotomayor. This remains true no matter how many soothing adjectives -- "serious," "calm," "judicious" -- Noonan intones  to cloak such undutiful irresponsibility.

What she and others such as Charles Krauthammer are advocating is nothing less than Taxidermy Conservatism--all stuffed shirts, hot air and no action. No blood, either. Just plenty o' "calm" as Peggy's GOP votes itself into an airless and dusty oblivion.