[HeartlandOfAmerica]

The definition of a RINO has devolved into anyone who doesn’t agree with ever miniscule iota of every conceivable element of Conservative doctrine

Are you seriously saying that Senator John "Amnesty" McCain is not a RINO?

Senator John "No-drilling-in-ANWR" is a card carrying conservative?

Senator John "Screw Political Free Speech and pass McCain Feingold" McCain isn't the most liberal Republican in the Senate?

Senator John "Cap-and-Trade Global Warming" McCain is as far right as any one of us?

If Senator John McCain is a conservative then I don't wanna be.

[bert]

Leaving McCain aside for this paragraph, recent thoughts expressed on FRee Republic exclude most Republicans as RINOs. The definition of a Republican has been revised to include only those having the purest of conservative thought and dogma. Chuck Hagel is a RINO, Olympia Snow is a Liberal Republican, Lindsey Grahm is a Republican

You chose to berate McCain even though he is the Republican candidate and like it or not, now carries the banner for the Conservative wing of the party. He also carries the flags for the other wings of the party. He won delegates to the convention by winning votes of Republicans all across the country. It is comical to hear him called a RINO.

There can be a distinction drawn between being a conservative and being a Republican, but in doing so, in this presidential season, such action can move one into the relm of irrelevancy. /p>

The choice then becomes not conservative or Republican but relevant or irrelevant.