You seem to be of the opinion that Republican = Conservative.
You know, I've been thinking about that, and I wonder if we don't have the definition of Rino all wrong. The Republican Party may have in the era of Reagan come close to being a "Conservative" Party, and it moved that way in 1994, but by and large, and certainly in the last decade, it has not truly been conservative. The Republican Party as it now stands, represented by people like Karl Rove, is a political party interested in, first and foremost, political power. Karl Rove is a Republican 1st, and a Conservative somewhere way down the line, if at all. The same but to a lesser degree is true of a John McCain or even a Dubya.
Now consider Sarah Palin. She may have been a Republican in name, but she basically blew the Republican Establishment in Alaska all to hell. (I hope I can say that, that way, here! Mods, modify if you wish.) Now she is doing much the same to quite a lot of the Republican Establishment on a national level. I'll grant you she's made a few exceptions (eg., John Mccain), but that's a different discussion.
Alternately, consider Joe Miller and his statement about his first responsibility as a U.S. Senator: (Paraphrasal) To ascertain whether any of the legislation in front of him is Constitutional. That is NOT the statement of an Establishment "Republican", and I say that as a registered Republican myself. It is, however, the statement of a Conservative.
I would submit that by the actual meaning of the words, it is the Sarah Palins and the Joe Millers who are "Republican in name only." As, these days, am I.
We don't register our party affiliation in my state, so I don't even have to claim that I'm a Republican, although I've consistently voted for Republicans for quite some time. Politically I fall somewhere on the spectrum between conservative and small L libertarian. I believe the Republican party is our best chance at taking over or developing a party committed to liberty and conservative principles, but I'm certainly not going to ever support the Republican party with money again until they show that they will defend those principles.