Editorial: Republicans, your time to be heard has come

Go forth, Republicans, and caucus like you have never caucused before.

An afterthought in the past, when the party had usually locked in its presidential candidate, the choices of Washington and Idaho Republicans will carry weight this year. And they have been courted like never before.

All four remaining candidates – Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – have made appearances in both states, all but Romney in Spokane or Coeur d’Alene. If the messages are well-worn by now, they regain their vitality when delivered in person to thousands who have never before had the opportunity to participate in a presidential primary that had any meaning.

Still, voters might be confused, and justifiably so. Conservatism apparently comes in more stripes than a seersucker suit.

There’s the libertarian version espoused by Paul, who would rein in U.S. adventurism overseas while hacking away at federal expenditures. His call for declarations of war before the United States deploys its military – it’s in the U.S. Constitution – was unheeded before the disastrous venture into Iraq, but remains a fit rebuttal to the saber-rattling on Iran from his GOP foes. If only the answer to the federal government’s upside-down budget were as simple as his.

Santorum’s cultural conservatism is genuine, if overboard. It cost him his Senate seat, but has so far served him well in the primaries. Voters see a man who walks the talk, though he fumbled his explanation of life and realpolitik in the U.S. Senate. Mostly, he has been the social conservative’s go-to alternative to Romney.

The intelligent but impulsive Gingrich lingers on the strength of his will, and the largesse of a single benefactor. Once the mainspring of conservatism’s revival, his campaign has only magnified the defects that cost him the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives and, finally, his seat. Tuesday’s Georgia primary may be his last hurrah.

Romney’s conservatism could rightly be characterized as opportunistic. But his suppressed moderation makes him the only candidate among the four likely to appeal to independent voters when the wreckage of the Republican primaries is finally swept aside and the victor can square off with President Barack Obama. Romney’s constituency among his fellow Mormons should give him a solid victory in Idaho. In relatively secular Washington, his management experience should win him a majority of delegates to county conventions. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is his state campaign chairwoman, and former gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is also a supporter.

Washington caucuses begin at 10 a.m. Get moving.

Idaho Republicans rally at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Eat dinner early.

Legendary House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill Jr. often related an anecdote from his first race, and the scolding he got from a neighbor because he had not solicited her vote. “It’s nice to be asked,” she said, and he never forgot it.

Washington and Idaho Republicans, you have been asked. It’s your turn.