No he is not a RINO. He is a Republican. That is what Republicans are. It is the principled conservatives who are RINOs. The rest are true Republicans in the Designated Opposition Wing of the Imperial Party.
If those newly elected members of congress were not Republicans, but were members of a Conservative Party, the way Bernie Sanders is elected as a member of the Socialist Party, would they have voted for Boehner? Never, they would have negotiated with the Republicans to let them have a speaker that conservatives could stomach, and for committee seats and positions. They would have more power than their actual numbers. Instead, they have less power than their numbers, because they are threatened like children.
Conservatism cannot be successful through the auspices of the Republican party. It is as simple as that.
More and more, lately, I have been coming around to this conclusion. Aside from the anomalies of Taft, Harding, Coolidge and Reagan, the Republican party's presidents have been a load of swillwater losers, perfectly happy with evergrowing, overbearing, totalitarian government. I have to conclude that the Party is as the Party does. If that's what the GOP stands for then I am not GOP - except to raise a little ruckus in the primaries.