[general_re]

...would they rather act defiant from the sidelines, throwing stink bombs and pointing fingers?

They'd rather have the whole loaf or none at all - if they can't have it all, they'd rather be schismatics who insure that the libs take the whole wad, rather than settle for partial measures or half-steps.

Stupid sniping from the sidelines about who is and isn't a conservative - how about we argue about this junk after the libs are run off the field?

[habs4ever]

I think so much is hot air from them.They aren't constructive, postive people, so they TALK a good game.Ever seen a pessimist actually accomplish anything? It's easier to proclaim "failure" before you start than actually be proven to be one ;-)

[afuturegovernor]

When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.

"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.' "If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it."

Ronald Reagan, from his autobiography, An American Life