ontheissues.org - I was reading that this morning trying to figure out how McCain's record squares with this "maverick" image he's gotten.

Anyone who's anywhere left of moderate gets the label of "hard-core liberal" at a minimum. Clinton and Obama both earn this rating from this site. And, also according to ontheissues.org, Richardson was more of a populist than Edwards; by the same token, McCain is supposedly as populist as Edwards, just on the opposite side of "moderate." Now that's some funny stuff.

Yet more comedy: Limbaugh and Coulter and Hannity are careening off the rails at the notion of a McCain candidacy. Coulter's flirting with a Clinton vote, even. Limbaugh claims that "establishment Republicans" are sacrificing conservatism on the altar of McCain's so-called independence. It'll take some time to research, but if you look at the Bush agenda and McCain's compliance, you'll find that even if he parted company on torture and tax reform, he's as rock-ribbed as Sessions or Kyl or Sununu or Santorum.

Rush doesn't realize that he *is* the conservative establishment, and voters are fleeing his brand of governance like bugs from a kicked rotten stump.

Are the dead-enders going to stay home if McCain gets the nod? Mostly not, I'm willing to guess. Some single-issue "Christianity" voters might, but they're even more likely to if Angel Britches gets the nod.

My fear is that some people will buy the line of McCain "moderation" and cross back over to McCain, expecting this vaunted independence to show up in his governance.

It has me wondering: Is the bickering on hate-speech media (Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity) a pose to steer honestly independent voters into McCain's direction, and to scare the evangelicals into sitting this one out?

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With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.

Rush doesn't realize that he *is* the conservative establishment

Nicely stated. Of all my peer GOP radio regurgitators, Rush is by far the most quoted. With XM, I bounce around from Rhodes, Hannity, Hartman and Rush. I've actually become pretty adept at picking GOP'ers who ride around in their call all day. For folks who are curious as to why people vote against their own interest - these are the ones to ask.

But I agree, these folks are finding the people who used to blindly agree with them because they were all listening/reading/watching the same shit, no longer are.