[muawiyah]

The only thing making anyone a RINO is first having run for political office as a DEMOCRAT ~ although you can accept a big enough appointment under a Dem regime and get the title.

RINOdom is POLITICAL IN NATURE, not IDEOLOGICAL.

Leftwingtard is sufficient to cover the non-conservative types. In fact, we have so terribly many words for Leftwingtards already that it'd be a shame to waste RINO on the pukes.

The first use of the term RINO on Free Republic on September 25, 2001 ~ the oldest date I could find ~ was in terms of partisan politics and involved a former Democrat office holder. Only later did anyone misuse it to mean Leftwingtard.

But if you want an ideological reason for questioning his Republican credentials, he's been soft on Illegals. That's one of those make or break things these days.

[hocndoc]

The Governor is not “soft on illegals.”

He has stated over and over that not one thing we do will make a “hill of beans” difference until we secure the border, get the feds to stop dumping illegals both in our State and just at the border.