While I'll admit there is a move towards RepublicRAT/Demoblican Party out there, IMHO, there's also a subtle move from within the GOP to move the Party to the Right, thereby swallowing up the folks who might be tempted to vote Constitution Party and/or Libertarian.
"Let's hope the GOP formalizes the merger before '04 so that conservatives won't be gulled into giving Geedub a second term or throwing the election to the dems by failing to support a conservative if one can be found to run in time."
While I have not been afraid to chide Dubyuh when I felt he was leaning slightly portside, I've been pleasantly surprised by his knee-jerk conservatism. If he continues along his present course, I can see him being viewed in history as one of the great POTUS's in History (a la Reagan) and it'll be specifically because he will have made Conservatism Cool again...while putting Federal Guv'ment spending on a course that will make it the smallest--as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product--since early last Century.
I've got no desire to throw the baby out with the bathwater...MUD
Bush doesn't have any conservatism in his makeup, Slim. Every single one of his kneejerks has been a socialist knee jerk. We must have been watching two different Geedubs, you and I.
The GOP leadership intentionally threw the election to Johnson when Goldwater challenged their status quo. They tried to do the same thing to Reagan. Since Reagan left office, there has been a steady culling of the ranks of conservatives. I'm not talking about the rank and file, though the number of conservative spear cariers has been dwindling since '96. Face it. The GOP's conservative element is done for. The leadership's brief flirtation with conservatism ended when Reagan left office.