Just as supporters of John McCain are enjoying the spectacle of the Democrats’ drawn-out inability to decide on a nominee, so too must Montana Democrats be watching an attempted Republican purge of “socialist” GOP incumbents with unalloyed glee.

Never mind that that a “socialist Republican” is an oxymoron of startling proportions. The term nonetheless speaks so eloquently to far-right Republicans’ thought processes — and also to the grim prospects for political success of any party resulting from such a schism — that Democratic chortles are quite understandable.

Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, told the IR State Bureau Tuesday that he wants true conservatives to launch primary-election challenges against a list of GOP legislators picked from a conservative voting index prepared by University of Montana law professor Rob Natelson. Natelson is a two-time candidate for governor whose ideological purity, like that of Koopman himself, cannot be questioned.

Among the targeted GOP lawmakers are Helena’s own John Ward and Dave Lewis who, in numerous meetings with the IR Editorial Board, have yet to call for government ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods.

Not surprisingly, state Republican Chairman Erik Iverson was quick to assert that “we’re a big-tent party. We’ve got room for all Republicans of all types of ideologies.” He told the State Bureau he constantly reminds Republicans of the late President Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.”

Alas, as is the case with so many commandments, temptations are strong, and some of us fall short.