[Tennessee Nana]

yeah well Buckley didn’t have to put up with liberal phonies like Willard ...

If he had he would have been more pacific and explained just what he considered a Conservative really is...

[Dr. Sivana]

yeah well Buckley didn’t have to put up with liberal phonies like Willard ...

Actually it was worse.



For starters, there Romney's ol' man George.

Let's not forget Nelson Rockefeller, who was actually heartbeat behind that great conservative stalwart, Gerald R. Ford for president.

But Gerald made up for it. He dumped Rockefeller and put in a REAL conservative ... Bob Dole.

In 1980, Dole thought he could beat Reagan, but he had some REAL Republicans to run against: Howard Baker, George H. W. Bush, John B. Anderson and John Connolly. Of course, John Connolly had been a Democrat.

Let's not forget the great businessmen in the party of the era. Certainly a great Captain of Industry would push the conservative position over, like Senator Heinz of Pennsylvania.

Then there's Lowell Weicker, who was so conservative Republican that the Buckleys formed a PAC to support Joe Lieberman as a more conservative alternative.

In 1980, Richard Lugar was thought of as a conservative.

The job is not finished, and the Empire is still striking back, but these things are measured in generations, not election cycles.