Well stated, Fishtalk... As a former Delawarean (or is it Delaweenie? or Delawarite?), it's nice to know there are principled conservatives living in the Diamond State and standing up for conservative values and ideas.
I agree with pretty much all you said in your reply. It pains me to think of all the Republicans in Congress who let all of us conservatives down so badly over the past 6 years (prior to that, I'd say the Class of 1994 had a very good record of staying true to the CWA and other Reagan principles).
I was very uncomfortable with George W. Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" as being too close to his father's "Kinder and Gentler America" ("Kinder and gentler than what?"). Still, compared to McCain's wishy-washy media-focused compromising, W looked like a statesman. And when 9/11 came along, I thanked God that our country had W instead of the other possibilities (McCain, Gore!). And I've defended W as being left too many time-bombs and other challenges from the Clinton Administration (recession; no preparedness for terrorist; N. Korea; slashed military; corporate corruption and bursting bubble stock market; very contentious judiciary and liberal bias supporting only liberals for judgeships).
Still, W went way too far in his "compassionate conservativism" embracing too much cr*p from Teddy Kennedy, the Clintons, etc. Reaching out to them is pure weakness and fruitless in the long run.
Now more briefly: while W has been a big disappointment, Congress has been even more disappointing. It just goes to show: you can never depart from First Principles without imperiling everything you stand for. That's what happened: with Tom DeLay, Foley, Hastert, Ney, Cunningham, etc. etc. (maybe even worse among the Senators). Republicans better figure this out or they may need to pack up the tent.
The encouraging thing is that we remain the party of Ideas and I suspect we'll see those ideas and ideals reasserted with even greater devotion and purity than in the past efforts. Unlike the WSJ, which mentioned "big government conservatism" as the product of 'think-tank Washington', the best GOP ideas have come out of the conservative think tanks in DC -- and the party better get back into embracing those first principles if it wants to get its majority back.