T IS GOOD to hang an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others.
So Voltaire said after the Royal Navy hanged Admiral Byng for losing a battle in 1756, and already you can see the nervousness in the eyes of the commanding officers on the Republican quarterdeck. So naturally the men who lost the election are searching for substitutes to send to the gallows. It's certainly true that some social conservatives speak in ways that many Americans find off-putting. And it's true, too, that Democrats used the murders of Matthew Shepard and Dr. Barnett Slepian in the weeks before the election to portray the conservative view of abortion and homosexuality as immoderate. On the other hand, before Republicans start remaking their party in the image of Bill Clinton, they should remember that the major Republican candidate who moved himself furthest and fastest from the social conservatives, Matt Fong, the Republican Senate candidate in California, turned certain victory as of August into a drubbing on Tuesday.