The Progress Report distributed today says that the Republican Party Platform, which will be adopted this week in St. Paul, advocates radical policies. It reports the “ultra-conservative Family Rights Council” describes the 2008 platform as the “most conservative, pro-life and pro-family platform in Republican party history.”

The Report says, “The platform calls for constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and abortions, positions that, according to a recent Time Magazine poll, only 35 and 10 percent of Americans support, respectively. And while the document refrains from using the term ‘privitization,’ its solution to Social Security calls for giving workers ‘control over, and a fair return on, their contributions’ to the program.”

The 112 GOP delegates hammered out the final version of the party platform last Wednesday and at 20,000 words iit is about one-half the length of the platform created four years ago.

NPR reported that one concession made to McCain dealt with the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Unlike most Republicans, McCain opposes such drilling. The draft of the platform that went before the full committee Wednesday advocated more oil exploration in Alaska, but not specifically in ANWR. Alaska delegate David Boyle sought to change that.

“After the word Alaska, in line 31, I would like to add, ‘comma, including the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,’ ” Boyle said. Backing up Boyle was Cathie Adams of Texas, who argued that spelling out a commitment to drill in ANWR would be a boon to the party.

“Since this has become the No. 1 issue in this campaign, we want to drill here, drill now, pay less,” Adams said. “In that spirit, I think that this is a very positive move and one that would be very complementary, one that would bring people to the party and to our candidate.”

But others sought to protect McCain, including Oregon’s Jeff Grossman. “We all support, I think, drilling in ANWR, and we know that President McCain will eventually come around to our position. But he’s not there yet. And so I would say prudence would dictate that we leave the text as it is until our candidate catches up with us a little bit,” Grossman said.