Maybe I’ve been remiss in not following the whole Letterman-Palin flap. Maybe it didn’t interest me too much because — without knowing the details of what happened, admittedly — I was afraid conservative commentators were making too big a deal out of it.

Apparently, there are people who just are not going to let this thing die. I’m not saying that’s good or bad. Again, I haven’t really kept up with it. But in the process of following up on this, I’m glad to see a (new) conservative recognize what I see as the Republicans’ biggest weakness: a lack of drive.

Start with Stacy McCain’s profile of one woman’s mission (emphasis his):

Sunday I had a phone conversation with Cynthia Yockey in which she calmly and cheerfully explained that she was going to get David Letterman fired. Republicans are too willing to take that kind of abuse, Cynthia said, but she comes out of the gay-rights movement, and they don’t roll that way.

We talked a while, but the main thing I took away from the conversation was Cynthia’s determination to fight a one-woman campaign against Letterman. Even if no one else joined her anti-Letterman crusade, she would fight on alone. As long as it takes, whatever it takes, she has envisioned her goal, and intends to achieve it.

Dave has pissed off the wrong lesbian.

So, I headed over the Cynthia Yockey’s blog, “A Newly Conservative Lesbian,”where I see a series of posts regarding her quest. And this one really jumped out at me (emphasis in original):

Sebastian Gray, at HillBuzz, wrote about the difference between Democrats and Republicans regarding putting in the effort required to get what you want from government and corporations on June 12 when he predicted it would require 30 days of persistent, consistent effort to get David Letterman fired. He also wrote:

As a lifelong Democrat, I’m frequently perplexed by some of the behavior of all the Republican friends I made during the McCain/Palin campaign when those of us here at HillBuzz led Democrats for McCain efforts with our whole heart and soul.

Republicans give up so damn easy at just about everything.

OMG, he was right!

That’s it in a nutshell. Maybe it’s because Republicans have a tougher job. It is much, much easier to agitate as a “progressive” for change than it is to agitate as a conservative to change things back, which is what we have to do as conservatives. Otherwise, all we do is slow the rate at which society changes for the worse, instead of stopping it or reversing it.

I’m as tired as the next conservative of Republicans bringing knives to gunfights. But a campaign to get Letterman fired doesn’t really fit into the type of fight that conservatives have to wage in the long term. It far more resembles the typical lefty hissy fit in its origins (a “joke”) and objectives (getting someone to pay with their job). I’m not saying Cynthia Yockey is wrong to wage it, and it’s a useful campaign for exposing double standards (Letterman vs. Imus) if nothing else. And perhaps if it puts some fire in the bellies of conservatives that can be transferred to more long-term causes, it will be useful no matter how it turns out.

Anyway, McCain’s post about relentlessness brought to mind a movie. Not Rocky, Rudy, Norma Rae, or any movie similarly infused with the theme. No, for sheer relentlessness, what immediately came to mind was this infamous clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which suggests that relentlessness alone may not get us anywhere:

Admirable nonetheless, though. If we can employ that degree of relentlessness in smarter fashion, we’ll do OK in the long run.

UPDATE (6/16/09): Caught 15 minutes or so of the first hour of today’s Michael Medved radio show this afternoon, and he’s really against any further protest or effort to get Letterman fired, especially in light of Sarah Palin’s acceptance today of Letterman’s apology. (Notably, there is serious disagreement over whether Letterman delivered a “real” apology or one of the “non-apology apologies” that have become so popular the last ten years or so.)

Medved insisted that being conservative doesn’t mean you have to be “stupid and angry and agitated over something meaningless,” which is how he sees this issue. Most importantly, and most relevant to Stacy McCain’s praise for Ms. Yockey’s relentlessness, Medved also insists that the chances of getting Letterman fired are less then zero. In fact, he cited several examples of fruitless or even counterproductive protests against media (by the left as well).

There was an interesting diversity of thought among his callers. If, like me, you doubt the wisdom of a continued campaign against Letterman, you might want to track down a podcast you can find a podcast for this.