I've been away - computer issues. Looks like I will have to pony up for the Mac Mini very shortly. The Mel Martinez endorsement smelled very funny, if you look at it from the standpoint of the amnesty legislation which we Conservatives managed to defeat. Can you see the synergism going on between McCain and his Senate colleague? We'll be fighting it all over again, mark my words. How can Republicans be so short-sighted? Watching election returns is, for me, as exciting as a Yankees fan watching his favorite team beat the Red Sox. So, here I sit, remotes in hand, FOX on the tube, Hewitt on the radio, back and forth, using my home theatre setup as my War Room. Ahhhh politics! It's probably been said by others, but it strikes me (as it has for more than a couple of years) that Conservatives - real Conservatives, of all stripes, you know who you are - are a minority with the 'big tent' of the Republican Party. And yes, to affirm what the breathless media lefties chortle, even within the Conservative ranks, we have differences. Of course, these same stooges for the DNC don't know enough about us to realize that true Conservatives - smaller government, lower taxes, less government regulation, pro-business, traditional values - will band together, even as a minority within the Party, to affect change and the direction of the GOP. With time, the Republican Coalition has become less conservative and more moderate. Witness the divisions between, say, Cubans, who appear to be voting overwhelmingly for John McCain in the Florida, primarily because of or in spite of his stand on amnesty (John, take note: IT WAS AMNESTY!) and traditional Conservatives, who disdain McCain because of McCain (Insert Democtratic Senator Name HERE), not to mention his bizarre stand, almost anti-Republican, on tax-cuts, judges, unsecured borders, terrorist rights, and a whole host of core issues. And to that we can add older Republicans (a sympathy vote, clearly) and what are known, at least to the media, as independent or moderate Republicans. I would call them confused. We Conservatives are no longer driving the bus. Unfortunately, I'm not sure who is. Does this mean we cannot win elections, or secure The White House in 2008? Of course not. What it does mean, though, is that Conservatives, long considered the 'base' of the Republican Party, are being gently elbowed to one side in favor of an unfocused moderate wing of the Party that traces its roots back to the elitist Rockefeller Wing of the party. The lines continue to blur. Conservatives really do not have a candidate they they can rally to. Fred Thompson was, for all intents and purposes, virtually comatose on the road, inspiring about as much excitement as your average building inspector (all he needed was the gum). Mitt Romney is the most potent of the candidates, but, based on the votes he is getting, is clearly not able to muster moderates to us in the numbers necessary to decisively spank McCain and end his campaign. Huckabee is a Pro-Life Democrat. Ron Paul is an isolationist loon. And Rudy is well... Rudy is a sentimental favorite for me, because he's decisive, but I wonder how he'd look after twenty-plus years in the Senate. To his credit, he probably would choose strict constructionist judges - something that worries me with Senator McCain. John McCain has shown no respect for free speech (McCain-Feingold). He has shown little regard for the competitiveness of the American worker (McCain-Liebermann). He's more interested in open borders than in protecting our borders (McCain-Kennedy). And yet, as I sit here tonight, he is leading in Florida. What is happening to the Republican Party? Beware, the Moderates have arrived. The media will love this, but it isn't over yet.