You can't build a winning coalition without the conservative base, you can't hold onto the conservative base unless you serve our primary goal of correcting the courts, and you can't correct the courts with nominees like Harriet Miers.
If your coalition is so important then you should be first in line to see that conservatives get what we want here. But I think it is only really important to you when it is an excuse to betray a vital interest of a coalition partner.
THAT is the most common misconception you folks have. There is no monolithic conservative "base."