"so take someone who had the other positions you mention - tax cuts, fiscal conservative, pro judicial reform, etc - add pro-choice and/or gay rights to that, and they are instantly branded a RINO"
From the example given by most specimens of the RINO herd, these pro-abortion, anti-traditional marriage Republicans ARE ALSO pro-tax hikes, pro-bureaucracy, pro-judicial activism, and so on; just at a lower degree than their Democrat counterparts.
So please, don't pretend they are conservative in everything BUT abortion and gay marriage. It's cultural, they reflect the people they live amongst. And most Yankees are socialist-like these days.
socialist-like -> socialist-lite
It doesn't stand for NOT CONSERVATIVE TO THE NTH DEGREE ! It means "REPUBLICAN IN NAME ONLY"; which does NOT mean that all GOPers have to be Conservative enough for the MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN THOUERS here.