It never had anything to do with having Democrat vews ~ which actually don't exist. The Democrat party is made up of a number of Special Interests and they have "institutional views", and where the interests in the coalition happen to agree those views will be taken to be those of the Democrat party.
“RINO
Republican in name only; typically means a member of the GOP who’s more liberal than a Republican should be”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=RINO
“In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt, then-President William Howard Taft, and Senator Robert LaFollette fought for ideological control of the Republican Party and each denounced the other two as “not really Republican”.[citation needed] The phrase Republican in name only emerged as a popular political pejorative in the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s.[1]
The earliest known print appearance of the term RINO was in the Manchester, New Hampshire newspaper then called The Union Leader.[2]
“Bill Clinton would have been proud of what was happening on the third-floor Senate corner at the State House this week.... The Republicans were moving out and the Democrats and “RINOs” (Republicans In Name Only) were moving in.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_In_Name_Only