It’s hard not to admire the D.C. Republican Party. It has chutzpah. Only one of the city’s senior elected officials hails from its ranks. Still, it believes it can affect the platform of the Republican National Committee.

Go DCGOP!

For two days this week, the platform committee of the DCGOP held public hearings to receive testimony about issues that should be on its agenda. It hopes to toss a few of those into the national mix.

But, if the national party is suffering an identity crisis, the local group is ready for the nearest sanatorium. Some members display signs of the Schwartz syndrome: registered Republicans who act like Democrats. The disorder takes its name from D.C. Councilwoman Carol Schwartz — the party standard-bearer who has, at times, fought conservative hallmarks like free-market enterprise and education choice.

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On Monday, none of the members of the DCGOP platform committee mentioned fiscal reform, capital gains tax, terrorists or the Iraq War. They spoke about homeland security, voting representation for the District and how urban issues affect African-Americans. I thought maybe I’d walked into a meeting of Democrats.

My confusion increased as I listened to Randall Moody. The vice chairman of the Ward 3 Republican organization, he works as advocacy manager for the National Education Association — an unlikely coupling if there ever was one. Touting the 1 million NEA members who are Republicans, Moody asked the committee to push to remove from the national platform support for the federal No Child Left Behind law. He also wanted the group to end its love affair with the District’s school voucher program. And, he asked the DCGOP to push the Republican National Committee to withdraw support for voluntary school prayer.

Send that man to Denver.

Marcus Skelton, with the National Young Republicans, advocated school choice and inmate rehabilitation through faith-based organizations. But choice really boiled down to allowing students to attend freely schools outside their neighborhood boundaries. And, by his own admission, clergy already are working on inmate re-entry.

Paul Craney, executive director of the DCGOP, said the group invited everyone and anyone to come before the committee.

“We want to build the party not shun people away,” he said while mildly chastising Democratic leadership, like Mayor Adrian Fenty, for its “closed-door” policy.

Craney said the platform committee also met with the very liberal D.C. Appleseed, DC Fiscal Policy Institute and the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It received written testimony from the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and DC Parents for School Choice.

District Republicans account for 28,913 of the 385,923 registered voters, according to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. Even if their focus seems a little fuzzy, they deserve our respect for refusing to cede political ground to Democrats. After all, democracy best thrives in an environment of energized multiple parties.