Look - those claiming Republican Renaissance or Resurgence or Rehabilitation really need to step away from the joy juice and think hard.

In the last election a freshman Senator who had been a college professor and serial autobiographer was elected to the highest office in the landwithout being all too specific about what he was going to do nor having the ability to point to having really done anything.

For that to have happened you need a country that really really really didn’t want the opponent.

Now the SoCons I know love when I start with that because they then jump forward at this point and talk about what a lousy RINO John McCain is. You know - the guy who is a fiscal hawk, pro life, defense zealot with a cranky disposition. Yup - that RINO.

The 2008 election was a “get it through your goddamned head” message to Republicans.

And the message wasn’t “Please impose more regulations as to how I can and can’t use my genitalia” nor “Please eliminate all mention of Charles Darwin from my child’s classroom” nor “Please do whatever you can to keep me from catching the ghey”.

Social Conservatism will not suddenly win over new supporters to the GOP.

Fiscal Conservatism will. Problem is the last guy we had in the white house spent like a drunken sailor and his majorities in the house and senate did nothing to stop it. Yes - wars are expensive which is why it is a good idea not to create massive new entitlements like Prescription Drug benefits when you are already running in the red. That isn’t fiscal conservatism.

It was called “compassionate conservatism”.

You know who else uses that term and walks that walk. Mike Hukabee - another guy whose followers love to scream RINO at folks like me as they dream up new ways to impoverish future generations in the name of “compassion” while also figuring out how to modify our sexual behavior.

Those are the priorities of the SoCons and they will do absolutely NOTHING to reign in runaway spending - they will talk the talk to get the power and then assemble another “K Street Project” to try to “buy” a permanent majority just like they tried last time.

And to rub the salt in the wounds, the only POTUS to run surpluses was a guy who could not control his genitals - Bill Clinton.