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Hmmmmm, well, y'know, hard-core conservatives DO present themselves for the Republican primaries up here in the Northeast. They really do. Republicans themselves, the voters, get to pick who will represent them in the general election. And they just don't pick the hardcore conservatives up here. They pick moderate-to-liberal Republicans, of the sort called "RINOs" and much despised elsewhere in the country.

There are a few issues on which MOST Republicans in the Northeast simply don't agree with Southerners and Mountain state folks.

Abortion is one. New England Republicans tend to be libertarian, not religious conservatives. There ARE men and women who present themselves, from time to time, in the primaries up here as pro-life, anti-abortion types. They lose, and don't make it on the ballot. They lose because most Northeastern Republicans are pro-choice. Most of them won't filibuster a pro-life federal judge - which makes them better for the conservative movement than a Democrat in the office, who will - but they represent their moderately pro-choice Republican voters. It's the way it is. I'm not making it up. Republican pro-lifers run up here, and they always lose in the primaries. Republicans up here don't vote for them, and aren't going to change their mind any more than Southerners are going to become pro-choice.

That's the biggest issue right there, isn't it?

Take Chris Shays, here in Connecticut.
He's pro-choice to the core.
He supports the War On Terror to the hilt.
He voted for the 700 mile border fence.

He's a RINO, because he's socially liberal.
Conservatives can challenge him, but they get no traction.
There are more pro-chice Republicans in Shays' district than pro-lifers. This is mirrored across the region.

Pick out for me the staunch pro-life, conservative Northeastern Republican in Congress.

Olympia Snowe? Lincoln Chafee?
Who?

The closest one is Santorum, in Pennsylvania, right on the Mason-Dixon line, who is struggling for his political life. Come a state north, and he'd have no chance at all.

There are fiscal conservative Republicans up here: Bloomberg and Giuliani stand out. But flat out Southern-style conservatives? There's no electorate for that.
All the Northeastern Republicans aren't "RINOs" by accident or conspiracy. That's the way people up here are.

I'm certain of it, because that's the way they always VOTE.