First, I'd replace Graham or Gregg with John Warner, he's more of a backstabber who "crosses over" to the Dem side than Graham or Gregg. The latter two might have some freepers foaming at the mouth to get rid of them (mainly due to people who decide how "conservative" someone is based on their fantatical hatred of John McCain and fawning over a candidate's ablity to make folksy, patriotic mom-and-apple-pie speeches), but that doesn't change the fact their Senate record shows they vote the "right" way about 90% of the time.
The American Conservative Union gave "RINO" Graham a 92% conserative rating in 2004, but "conservative" Warner was 20 points lower, having voted conservative 72% of the time.
I'm also guessing Murkowski (AK) and Shelby (AL) voted to the left of Gregg and Graham. IMO, any Republican Senator who can't muster a conservative record at least 80% of the time (4 out of 5 votes) is a "weak sister" and could be replaced with a better candidate. Any Republican from a solid GOP state who can't muster a 80% rating is a squishy RINO who NEEDS to be replaced. No execuse for that.
Second, I'd upgrade ol' Snarlin' Arlen MacSpecter from "moderate" to "liberal", seeing as he couldn't even must a 51% "conserative" rating (his lifetime average is 44% I believe, so this RINO actually votes with the liberals MORE OFTEN than us. The Clinton impeachment revealed that the uber RINO quadrent of Senators was Snowe, Collins, Specter, and Chafee, and everything since then have pretty much proven these jokers can"t even be reliabled upon to vote with us "when it counts", let alone vote with us on big issues.
In short, the conservative movement needs to stop tilting at windmills and whining about the Peter Fitzgerald and Rick Santorums of the world (90% conservatives elected in statse that went Gore/Kerry twice), and instead focus on truly awful RINOs elected in "safe" GOP states and ultra-liberal Dems elected in "safe" GOP states.
The way the U.S. Senate is designed, we SHOULD easily have a 60 seat advantage over the Dems. We don't because the Dems don't run around proclaiming "only DINOs can WIN!!" in Bush states like North Dakota, and the GOP fails to run competative candidates in states they should carry "by default". There are far more hard core Dems in Bush states than hard core Republicans in Kerry states. Tsk, tsk.
You make a lot of sense, when I rewrite this I will consider these points carefully. Thanks for the input.