Close, but no cigar...

The Northeastern moderates tend to style themselves as fiscal conservatives, spinning a narrative in which they’re the victims of a doctrinaire social conservatism and its litmus tests. But many of them are just instinctive liberals who happen to have ancestral ties to the Grand Old Party. Chafee fit that bill; so did former Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, who amassed a distinctly left-wing record after he bolted the Republican Party in 2001 to become an “independent.” For that matter, so does the retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a New England native and Republican appointee who often gets described as a moderate, but boasts the jurisprudence of a reliable liberal.

Others, like Collins and Snowe and (until last week) Specter, are simply horse-traders and deal-cutters, whose willingness to cross party lines last month to vote for $800 billion dollars in deficit spending tells you most of what you need to know about their supposed fiscal conservatism. They’re politically savvy but intellectually vacuous. Their highest allegiance isn’t to limited government. It’s to meeting the party in power halfway, while making sure that the dollars keep flowing to their constituents back home.

You canNOT be a fiscal conservative and vote for an "$800 Billion" bailout. It's a simple litmus test. And, I take issue with all these pundit omnipotent types who claim that the "defection" of Specter was a...loss...or negative in any way. It is very much an improvement to Conservative principles. The more moderate tweeners that are cast aside, the clearer the message of those who are left.

Soon, that message, should it be framed and communicated effectively will resonate in the constituency (supported and encouraged by the contrary policies and actions of those on the Left). ROSS DOUTHAT makes some valid points, but it's clear that he doesn't get it. I find it amusing that the IHT (NY Times) posts his photo with the story and uses the following caption under the pic:

Susan Etheridge for The New York Times

Some of his points reflect hers, I'm sure. This is the time to clean house and go full out on the offensive...

Advice from the town half-wit...

WASHINGTON -- Steve Schmidt, the Republican strategist who managed John McCain's presidential campaign, called upon his party today to move to Barack Obama's left by fully supporting gay marriage.

Such a position would not only fit conservative principles, he argued, but could help Republicans navigate a political situation he said "could get worse before it gets better." Most prominent Democrats, including Obama, support civil unions for gay couples but not marriage, while most elected Republicans, including McCain, are opposed to both.

"I'm confident American public opinion will continue to move on the question toward majority support, and sooner or later the Republican Party will catch up to it," Schmidt told a Washington gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group fighting for influence within the party.

First...the obvious...Steve Schmidt ran the absolute WORST campaign in recent history (perhaps all of history). With that preface, I am glad to see the Republican party embrace the Equal Opportunity mantle and allow dim-witted, window lickers like him a place in the party. He should be on display inside a clear cubic box of plexiglass...where he can make his recommendations, and we Conservatives can take the complete opposite direction. He shall serve as barometer of the asinine.

Ahhhhh...but don't hit the 'Enter' button quite yet to send your hate mail. I have no problem with gay marriage, and I am a full blooded Conservative. The fact of the matter is that, to me, it is barely an issue, and certainly one that wouldn't serve to secure swing votes. Instead, the position that the Conservative representatives, and potential representatives should be swinging should the be "Hypocrisy" ax.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

"We just want the same opportunities as everyone else."

"We just want equality."

"We want to be treated like everyone else."

The same folks spouting out those comments on a regular basis as their calling card, then proceed to organize "Gay Pride Parades" and events, lobby for special Civil Rights consideration, and spend a lot of time and energy doing their best to be perceived as something very much different from the rest of us.

Guess what? The same philosophy applies to minorities, illegal immigrants, the National Organization of Women and so on...

My point is that Steve Schimdt is a mouth breathing troglodyte with no credibility and an essence of dull vapidity. He'd do better managing a Jiffy Lube provided the regional director didn't care too much about the monthly financials.