[mike.musculus]

I beg to differ. Party "Leadership" got exactly who they wanted.
Look at the evidence, who is elected the top 3 posts in each house, who is put in the various offices at the RNC. No, they hated Reagan as they hated every Conservative prior to him. The difference is, Reagan bypassed them. He went straight to us.

When RR left, the leadership wasted no time starting to show us the door. Oh, they like our money, and our grassroots campaigning for them... but we'd better shut-up about policy! "Just SD&SHU!", they say!

Didn't you-all figure this out during Amnesty, when they called us on the floor of thr House -- in oh-so-condecending-tones -- "the noisy people", and after the election they'd need to "...take care of them"[meaning us!]?

[rlmorel]

"...Oh, they like our money, and our grassroots campaigning for them..."

I'll bet they saw a drop off in both of those, but not as bad as it is going to be if they don't change.

As for leadership, what I was talking about was his lack of leadership in political terms. He did absolutely none of that, I am sure it had something to do with his concepts of bipartisanship or simple reluctance to engage in any. Whatever it was that hurt the party.