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Well, I kinda feel it is personal. I lived through the 1994 Senate race in Virginia, and to be honest, I saw what happened when folks did not support the nominee.

John Warner and Ollie North probably do not exchange Christmas cards. But that race went way the hell out of control, and the result is still felt today, I think. I know I have not forgiven Warner.

And it happens time and time again. People don't like a candidate's position on an issue or a vote that was cast, and so they stay home or go third party. The liberal ends up winning the election. The folks who supported the Republican feel angry and betrayed - they feel they can't trust the third party types. The third patry types think the folks who stuck with the Republican are "party over principle" types.

Soon, honest disagreements over an issue - or even HOW to achieve the same objective - become excuses for attacks. Those attacked respond, because they feel they are as dedicated as the ones attacking them, and it goes on and on... and through all that, the liberals sit back and let the self-immolation continue until both sides on the conservative side are so disillusioned with the other that they refuse to see the common enemy. They like it, because they get that House seat, Senate seat, governorship, or even the Presidency at the end.

George W. Bush was saying pretty much from day one that he was a "compassionate conservative" - and in this case, I feel he is the victim, just as Ollie North was the victim of John Warner a decade ago.

I saw John Warner, a moderate/RINO (pick whatever term you wish for him) divide the GOP in 1994 - I saw that division help re-elect Charles Robb. As someone who voted for Ollie North and convinced a couple of other people to do the same, I felt like I was stabbed in the back. Some of those who bolted blamed it on Ollie North - after all he has a checkered past. Perhaps, perhaps not. But he was ultimately the nominee, and there was, I think, an obligation to support him after the primary.

In 2004, I see conservatives making similar threats. I see them using the same sort of blame game against George W. Bush that I saw used by Warner and other backers of Marshall Coleman against Ollie North and the GOP in Virginia. I see the possible result, and having been stabbed in the back by malcontents in 1994, I am furious to see the same thing ready to happen a decade later and with much higher stakes involved.

Am I jaded? Perhaps. Maybe I'm just a party hack. Maybe I'm too willing to compromise. But if you see where I'm coming from, maybe, just maybe, you might be willing to understand why I'm so angry at the "stay at home" and "third party" types who are making these noises.