The RINO´s are so deluded that they will bring a third party on themselves. Without some drama, anger, push back and shouting, the GOP is completely over.

Oh, I dunno, OP. Jeb Bush is apparently a "RINO" because his surname is Bush, Marco Rubio is regularly called "RINO" on these threads because he has put together an immigration reform program, Senator Cornyn is a "RINO" because one L-Dotter has received canned messages from the senator´s office, Eric Cantor is judged a "RINO" for no particular reason I have seen. The word has become even more meaningless than when it first became part of unhappy GOPer terminology.

Much of the party´s traditional base have fewer and fewer principles and beliefs in common with so called moderates in control of the national party.

It´s easy #2. A RINO is any Republican who doesn´t agree absolutely with me...

This dividing of the party is ridiculous.

Like Ronald Reagan I believe, If you think you´re a Republican, I think you´re a Republican.

This dismissal of those who don´t pass some litmus test invented by ??? is like taking your place in a circular firing squad.

I don´t see a happy future for a party so intent on self destruction.

The only people who are crying for the war within the Republican Party to stop are the clueless and those afraid of losing their power within it.

There is plenty of blame to go around. I am guilty of a quick trigger finger myself.

Yes, and Sarah Palin is to far to the right. Stormy is once again campaigning to keep liberals in power forever.

That said, is there anybody here, anybody, who would defend Kathleen Parker´s honor?

I don´t think she even rates the appellation of RINO, as that carries at least a vague whiff of actually being sort of Republican. Seems to me she´s just an annoying and pretentious gadfly. A troll with a newspaper column, if you will.

In all these threads I see a pretty clear dividing line between the modern GOP posters and the conservatives. I mean this as an observation and not snarkiness (for a change).
The GOP types are interested primarily in victory. They will do what it takes to win and make any corrections internally down the road.
The conservatives have a governing philosophy, the absence of which means one is not a conservative.
At one time the GOP and conservatives managed to coexist in the same party reasonably well. No longer. The conservatives see the deterioration of the country as partially the doing of a long line of weak GOP candidates as well as the work of the dem communists. The GOP sees the problem as the conservatives unwillingness to compromise its principles.
I suspect we are past the point where coexistence is possible any more.

FTA: "Parker calls for a RINO uprising, a new faction on the right to counter the Tea Party."

Ms. Parker, The Washington Post´s resident "Republican" dunderhead, renews her dues, once again, in "The 100% Wrong Club."

The RNC/GOP/Congressional "Reach Across The Aisle" Caspar Milquetoasts are the ones who helped bring America´s Civilization to it´s present state of liberal chaos and despair, and greatly helped facilitate the ushering in of our current Kenyan Dictator, Emperor Zero of Nairobi.

# 2 - RINOs are spineless. They talk "big" but their actions prove worthless. This pretty well describes the ones mentioned. Oh yes, when it gets closer to re-election, my, my, how their actions begin to change, but there have been years of spinelessness in their past.
The RINOs are the first to go along with any spending, refuse to live within a budget, take advantage of their "insider" status, right in the thick of things to give themselves perks, etc. Between RINOs abd DEMs, the only difference is the name.

The terms GOP, Republican and Conservative are not exclusive of each other. I am all three. Yes, it´s possible. The idea that a Republican must agree that everyone is a "RINO" except thee and me or that any Republican cannot call himself a conservative is ludicrous. I don´t get to decide if you can consider yourself a conservative and neither can you make that decision for others. That´s what´s so offensive about the way the stupid term "RINO" is flung around. It means nothing, except as #4 stated, "someone who doesn´t agree absolutely with me".

WHO said this is an either/or situation---either you´re a conservative or a rino? A tea partier or an elitist? This is a completely false premise, this either/or nonsense. Why accept or react to a premise that isn´t true? Many of us don´t fit into a mold and our party should have room for everyone.
Until we learn to tolerate, learn from each other, and UNITE we are DOA. We are not electing pastors, rabbis or priests. Politics is NOT pure and searching for pure candidates is futile .You can´t get much purer than Romney and look how well that turned out.
We are in a big time battle and need to keep our focus on the true enemy, instead of firing on our own comrades.

#13, EXACTLY what I was going to post! I am very conservative but agree 100% with Stormcnter. Until we unite and realize we can not move conservatism forward from the minority, this nation will suffer. The left has our number and is whipping our butts. I am not a "modern GOP poster", just a conservative who can see the forest for the trees.

"At one time the GOP and conservatives managed to coexist in the same party reasonably well."

Yeah, that was when we understood we might disagree with other conservatives on some issues and still unite to defeat the left. I agree with those who say Reagan would not please conservatives today.

"A RINO is any Republican who doesn´t agree absolutely with me..." Correct, and not a winning philosophy.

More and more are getting it. Principled conservatism never had anything to do w/republicanism. Obviously for some, a conservative is anyone who wears a jacket and tie w/laced shoes.

Matt, the Tea Party may have originally stood just for smaller government, but it has morphed into standing for more than that...and in many cases, those who claim to be Tea Partiers are now promoting values that not all Republicans agree with. I agree with smaller government and once considered myself a Tea Party supporter. But now I guess many in the Tea Party would consider me a RINO, because I don´t think that psychotic people should have guns and I think it is wrong for society to let the homeless mentally ill sleep and die on the streets of our cities instead of helping them. I would love to cut the government - there is zero reason to have a federal Dept. of Education, for example. But if the Republican Party allows the Tea Party to morph it into a party of hate...count me out.

I think this so-called war within the Republican party has been coming for a long time. The timing is miserable. Democrats are making huge inroads with the electorate while the Republicans snap and snarl at one another.
However, if we can´t put aside our differences and work together, I´m game for a good fight. I hold my principles as dear as any who post here. Don´t want to vote for my guy? I sincerely doubt I will support yours. And then the Democrats will rule us all.

#10 nails it.

Any Republican is better than a Democrat since it takes Republicans to have a majority and impliment policy.

Republicans are part of gov´t, we don´t not like, or want gov´t. We just don´t believe it needs to be as big and intrusive as the Democrats.

Reagan once said something about your my friend if I agree with 85% of what you do.
In other words, no one will have 100% acceptance. Most married couples don´t agree 100% of the time either, so how can you expect someone you really don´t know, the politician, to agree 100% of the time?

What we need to focus on is the moderate and conservative Democrat seats. They´ll only end up being beholden to the liberal leaderhip, so they won´t really be representative of the district.

#4, funny, but that sounds like the definition some of you guys have of a purist, too.

#17, name one Tea partier who thinks "psychotic people should have guns and society should let the homeless mentally ill sleep and die on the streets of our cities instead of helping them". That´s just dumb. Not even half clever enough to pass as polemics. And morphing into a party of hate? Any morphing that´s transpiring within the Republican party right now owes itself in no small part to the purveyors of self-righteous indignation who imagine themselves to be superior political analysts living in some mythical oversized tent that has room for every deviation under the sun except for . . conservatives.

Naw, we don´t hate you, we just hate how eerily similar your views are to the Loyalists/Tories who disagreed with the original Tea Partiers and thought the fight for independence was unwarranted. After all, what chance did that little uncouth, rabble-rousing band of trouble makers have against the largest empire the world had ever known? Better to stick with the power structure and forget all this freedom and liberty stuff.

Conservatism is values; Republican-ism is politics. Conservatism once coincided with Republicanism, particularly during the days of Reagan. OTOH, both before and since, Republicanism was out-of-step rubbish, rejected by Americans. Goldwater led to Nixon, who gave us bigger government, including the EPA. Reagan gave us the Bush era of "New World Order" and "Compassionate Conservatism", which brings us to today. Republicans play the political game towards the center, hoping to attract enough "Silent Majority" votes to win, figuring conservatives have no electoral alternative. The contemporary Silent Majority has swung to the Democrats because Compassionate Conservatism made it okay to expand government (Medicare), infringe on unalienable rights (DHS), nominate cronys (Harriet Miers), open our borders (Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007), act the world´s cop and nation-build, and whiz away borrowed money until it all collapses. The ideological difference between Obama (Democrats) and Bush (Republicans) is mostly one of degree and "optics".

A Democrat lite party that essentially goes along to get along with the liberal Democrats are not going to win very many national elections in the future. Why should anyone vote Democrat lite when they could get more out of the government in terms of safety net social welfare benefits and services by voting for the liberal Democrats?

With the illegal alien issue. The vast majority of illegal aliens, and their family members both here in the USA and abroad are poor people, who when they can find work earn a low wage, are generally uneducated, and have big families. Nobody knows how many illegal aliens are here now, the liberal media gives an obvious low ball figure of 11 million, while in reality there may be 20 million or more illegal aliens here now.

The liberal Democrats are pushing for an amnesty encompassing just about every illegal alien now in the USA including a special path to citizenship for them that will ensure that as many as possible eventually are granted US voting rights, and provisions that allow the legal immigration of many millions of their foreign family members in the years ahead.

The liberal Democrats would not be doing that if they thought there was any chance that more then a small percentage of those former illegal aliens and their family members, both here now, and who would come here in the future, would ever have an epiphany and vote for conservatives or the Republicans.

If the Republicans go along to get along with the liberal Democrats with any sort of amnesty that eventually hands the liberal Democrats 10 million or so new voters in the years ahead, they will have committed long term political suicide.

#19 - I agree with my RINO Congressman´s votes only about 40% of the time. Sadly, it is only his votes on small, inconsequential things that the Dems generally don´t agree with. The Reston the time he votes the same as the Dems do.

The Democrats are ruling because too many of the
Repubs are voting with and for them, not too mention they look the other way as this administration violates the law and Constitution over and over again.

The Republican Party has lost my confidence by their own efforts. The net result of my holding my nose and voting for the Repub candidate has been loss of wages, increased taxes, higher prices and a set back in my way of life. That´s the same effect as if a Dem was my Congressman. So I should care if my RINO is elected again why?

I agree with #s 21 and 22. Once it was easier to define Republicanism but as a philosophy it has morphed so close to Democrat philosphy that the difference between the two is scant. It is no wonder that the adjectives conservative, constitutional and commonsense have become the banner for many people disillusioned by the inevitability of republican go-along- to-get-along ism, and toeing that damned old party line. I long for more people like Sen. Ted Cruz who will go to Washington and do what they were elected to do-the will of the people, and stay strong in the face of corrupt party politics.

I don´t get it. Romney by most measures was a moderate. I certainly considered him one, definitely not hard right. Why does his defeat call for a panic search for more moderates to run for president? Personally I don´t think he lost because he´s a moderate, I think he lost because he thought he was going to win and so pulled in his horns and tried to cruise to victory as Mr. Nice Guy. But if his loss calls for a change it ought to be to the more conservative potential candidates. We haven´t tried one of them since Reagan.

The difference between a Moderate Republican (RINO?) and a Conservative is both want smaller taxes and government, however, Moderates are ok with gay marriage, abortion on demand, gun control, amnesty, anti-Christian, elitists, greed, etc etc. In other words, most Moderates are Democrats on social issues and Republican on Government issues. For me personally, morality and principle will always trump Government.

I´m with #20 and #24.
Sick of rich, elite RINO´s (lite Dems/Globalists) like Bush(s), (Rove), McConnell, Boehner, etc. we need more Rand Paul´s, not mini RINO´s in training like Rubio and Ryan. The "radical left wing" dems didn´t compromise and they won two elections. Learn, people!

This article is a muddle of internal contradictions and non sequiturs. To take one of the most obvious: What is Purple saying about Christie? Let´s stipulate that Christie is a RINO. But Purple suggests that Christie´s budget-slashing would horrify the elite. So does that make Christie a conservative, even though he has done many things of which conservatives disapprove? There is no logical thread to those paragraphs.

And what´s the business about RINOS being pro-libraries and pro-middle class? What´s wrong with that? Or are conservatives supposed to be anti-middle class and anti-libraries? If so, why?

As for being anti-tricorn hats...count me in. Dressing up like Ben Franklin may be cute if you´re a costume party attendee or a theme park employee, but not if you´re serious about politics. And, frankly, people who sew teabags to the bills of their baseball caps look like goofballs.

I think I´ll go to the library.

#20. Your analogy to our Colonial Tories is apt indeed but for the old hen posters, it´s all about never offending a soul. Bad manners you see.
#21. Your observation about the difference between Bush and Obama being one of optics, hit the mark.
History is replete w/greatness whose hallmarks include toughness and will. Rome sent the message, "Let them hate; as long as they fear". Sure reminds of the modern GOP doesn´t it?

I agree with #20. I want to point out that when many of the RINO´s run for President, they launch their campaigns with a spech declaring they are Conservatives and then have to define their conservatism. As a Conservative, I determine whether I will support a candidate IF I can agree on 75% of their stances. ANY of these candidates that are willing to violate the Constitution or national security doesn´t have my vote..... PERIOD. The GOP relies on the Conservatives for votes, opts for big government candidates and then is surprised Conservatives won´t support them and the name calling begins. I no longer care what "Compassionate" Republicans call me, I won´t go with the sewer flow any longer.

I am a Conservative. I vote Republican. I voted for Reagan. I voted for both Bushes. I voted for Romney. I am a Vietnam Veteran. I love my country. God, Family, Country. I´d take a bullet for her. I believe in rugged individualism. Freedom. America. The right to bear arms. Limited Government.

I dont believe in lefty values. No on abortion. No on illegal immigration. Yes on a border fence. No on Amnesty. I detest public schools and all the union jerks and lazy chairwarmer leftist rats from kindergarten to college.

I have a list of people who I wish were never born, never known to us, and that list includes Barry Soetoro and his mooch gorilla wife, Joe the Plagiarist Biden, J F´in Kerry, Hagel, Carney, Both creepy criminal Clintons, Holder, Panetta, Geithner, Van Jones, Val Jarrett, and each and every "artist" who calls themseves a "rapper"...

I despise the lefty liar networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, and all the liar Urinalists who whore out their crap to newspapers in cities around the country. Dont believe them. They are liars.

I cannot stand most of the crap that passes for entertainment on TV anymore. Leno, Letterman, Fallon, Maher, Stewart....they hate conservative white Republican men like me.

Fox News is full of crap and full of RINO´s.Dont watch that poison. Listen to Rush Limbaugh and stay here on Lucianne. Theres a lot of poison out there.

Most of all, a conservative is willing to FIGHT for their principles, for leadership, for their party. Dont give in to the left! Kick their asses! Destroy them first, because they are determined to do that to us. Keep fighting them! We will win again!

#27 and #32 I salute you. I was going to comment until I realized you´d already said what needs to be said. What did running Mitt Romney as the candidate achieve? Another loss and further shift of the Republican party to the left.

I will always vote for the Republican over the Dem, even though I may not agree with them 100%. I also, more and more, never fall in love with any politician because they will disappoint me at some point in time.

A RINO or not, Cornyn will be primaried next election. Read this am that a businessman from Rockport, Tx. has thrown his hat into the ring...Eric Wyatt. We certainly need more like Ted Cruz, perhaps this is a beginning.

Why don´t posters who bash us conservatives bash liberals just as much? What is is about those posters who go after those of us who dutifully voted for their moderate candidates: Dole Bush Bush McCain Romney. Why do they blame those of us who held our noses and voted..for their losing candidate..only to be rewarded by all the Kathleen Parker Posters with scorn, blame and ridicule. Do any of the Storm, Mollies, et als ever think maybe it is not our fault they pick losers to run? Why are they blaming us? Typical of liberals...and they call themselves conservatives. What gives? Naturally not one will ever explain. All they do is bash us.