Brett Stephens sounds like a [jerk]. I doubt he provoked any thoughts from the audience with his condescension other than, "Who the hell does this guy think he is?" 

Worse than Rush's or Imus's remarks. Much worse. Blatantly and utterly racist, trotting out every ugly stereotype about black people. Did he have a point or was he just trying to express his dislike of black culture and that he doesn't want to have to look at it? Awful and stupid.

Great stuff, James et al. Makes one marvel at the brains that have these people and stories living inside of them, as well as making one want to go out and write a book. I've a feeling that urge would result in a page of doodles or about six sentences sitting on a new word document in the background on my laptop, while I end up surfing the web for six hours ultimately deciding I was never going to write a page, let alone a whole book. Fun to get a peak under the hood of a writer.

Thanks James, looking forward to it! This special edition thing is so confusing!

*cough* no Goldberg *cough*

Do Cardinal rules apply outside of St. Louis?

He was there. You just didn't pay attention because there were too many people like Ben distorting Romney's record and message, and all the people who were freaked out by Romneycare and/or past pro-choice rhetoric never got past those issues to actually listen to Romney. I heard this type of think from Romney all along and it was why I chose to support him last fall.

Here's the thing, if there is a sexual orientation barrier within the GOP, the only way to break it is for homosexuals to get a thick skin, stand up to it and overcome it. Running away and crying about the meanies who called you names is not the way to improve the party.

This.

You're deluded.

No, you're just a rotten Republican who borders on being a nihilist.

Because it is the only vehicle. It just is. Describe a realistic alternative. Conservatives have to understand that they are a minority in our country, just as liberals are. There may be more conservatives than liberals, but the bottom line is that conservatives need to team up with people that aren't conservative in order to have any chance to do the things they want to do or to stop the things they want to stop. That some people in the coalition don't like everything conservatives stand for or want shouldn't be surprising nor off-putting. It should be a reminder that you are part of a partnership and that politics is a system of compromise by it's very nature. You might as well complain about gravity preventing you from levitating.

If you overwhelmingly vote Republican and never vote for Democrats, you are a Republican. I'm not registered Republican either, but I'd only be fooling myself if I pretended I wasn't a de facto Republican. There is not a political alternative to the Republican party if you are conservative. Believing there is is deluded.

What must be recognized is that the Republican party is the only viable vehicle for conservative values and ideas to achieve power and effect the outcomes conservatives desire. Whether staunch conservatives like it or not, the GOP is the car they have to ride in. Luckily for conservatives, they more than any other faction within the party get to dictate the course.

So while the GOP is not a conservative organization per se, it is the de facto practical, political expression of conservatism, albeit a distorted and imperfect one. Therefore, those other factions in the car which veer the GOP away from the course conservatives recommend are the deviants, literally, at odds with the de facto identity of the party. Hence they get the moniker of RINO.

This isn't really controversial nor meant to be subversive. It is a bit reactionary and hyper sensitive to suppose it is or try to make it so.

Well, if you will assign whatever meaning you want to others words and read into what people write things that are not there, there really is no point in banning words you don't like. After all, you seem perfectly able of being offended no matter what someone says.

Franco doesn't like people calling themselves RINOs, the way Rob Long does. Franco takes it as a passive aggressive attack on staunch conservatives like himself. Pretty silly if you ask me.