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Let me just add some HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:

"Conservative purists" excoriated President Reagan just as they now excoriate President Bush.

Many of these "purists" deserted President Reagan in the second and third year of his first term when he both increased spending/deficits (to the HIGHEST levels EVER as % of GDP) and rescinded many of the tax cuts that he had passed just the year before! President Reagan's approval ratings plummeted to the 30s/40s, not to recover until the 4th year of his first-term when 'perceptible' economic growth occurred just in time to secure the President's re-election.

In his second term, President Reagan again experienced the rath of "conservative purists" when he "softened" his policies relative to the Soviet Union (read withdrawing missiles from Europe). This "softening" coincided with a blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, a mild recession and the Iran-Contra controversy. Needless to say, the President's approval ratings again plummeted and really didn't recover until he left office -- at which time, the disaffected "purists" began to 're-write' their perceptions of the Reagan presidency. In particular, they decided to retrospectively applaud President Reagan for DOING WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS RIGHT, NOT WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS POLITICALLY OR IDEOLOGICALLY EXPEDIENT! [Can anyone spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y?!]

[Of course, the re-writers did NOT include Reagan's OMB Director or his Secretary of the Treasury (during his first term), both of whom wrote devastating critiques of both the President and his economic policies! "Conservative purists" can be brutal -- even to their supposed heroes!]