[XJarhead]

I do want an intra-party fight so that we--the so-called ideologues--can finally exercise power instead of chafing under the governance of party leaders who care little about important issues (such as abortion and gay marriage) and who treat politics as a game instead of as a war. The absolute last thing I want to see is the GOP turned into a mushy, stand-for-nothing party.

I don't either. What I don't understand is fighting a battle like that in an election off-year. Isn't the time to have that fight during the primary, where the guy whom we choose to carry the standard in the general election is selected?

At this point, we already selected our guy, and he won the general election. There is no more conservative option available right now. The makeup of our elected officials is not going to change. So the only fight we can really have right now is between elected Republicans and elected Democrats. And to the extent Miers isn't what we wanted, she likely is a lot better than what the Dems would have offiere.

Weakening Bush now doesn't strengthen the conservative wing of the party. The only people it strengthens are the Democrats. The time to fight the battles you wish to fight is in the primaries in 2006 and 2008.

[hispanichoosier]

Isn't the time to have that fight during the primary, where the guy whom we choose to carry the standard in the general election is selected?

Sure! But only if you can assure me with 100% certainty that some mealy-mouthed party big-wig won't trot out that old saw that we don't want a divisive primary because it'll leave our GOP candidate too wounded for the general election.