People seem to forget what "RINO" stands for -- it's Republican In Name Only. Chafee, Specter, Collins, and Snowe are the RINOs who cannot be trusted to support "their" party. Other guys, like Frist and Lott, might be wimpy, spineless "leaders", but there's certainly not RINOs. McCain, Graham, etc., might be backstabbers, but they're not "just like Democrats" unless you can find a pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-WOT, pork-fightin', tax-cut pushing Dem in the Senate.
Ben Nelson and Mary Laudrieu aren't RINOs -- since when they ever claim to be Republicans?? If anything, alot of Dems would call Nelson a DINO, and there's some truth in that. Some "single issue Dems" are like the Graham haters on this board, calling uber-liberals like Joe Lieberman and Melissa Bean "DINOs" becuase they diagree with them on one issue. If they'd like to lynch Lieberman, Bean, etc., I'd be more than happy to help them do it.
A bunch of idiots on this board kept hurling the "RINO" label at Johnny Iskason because they couldn't get over Herman Cain losing the primary (and I say this as somone who strongly backed Cain in the primary because I was tired of Washington insiders). Isakson is no RINO, and as much as the Zell Miller worshippers hate to admit it, he's to the RIGHT of their hero Zig Zag.
Conservatives should be united behind the Pat Toomey's and Steve Laffey's of the world. They are not only true RINO slayers, but they are also excellent candidates in their own right who had a chance to prove conservatives aren't "unelectable" in Dem states
I agree, Johnny Isakson is by no means a RINO; in fact, he's a solid conservative on just about every issue. Isakson is pro-abortion, though, and it's a shame that a socially conservative state like Georgia should have had to settle for someone less than 100% conservative. Herman Cain would have been far, far preferable.
Ben Nelson is a DINO (and I'd love to see him switch to the GOP; if he did, you can bet he would vote to the right of Hagel on most issues), but Landrieu is a liberal who casts a few conservative votes now and again to try to fool Louisianans into thinking she's one of them---hopefully her time will run out in 2008. Lieberman is one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, and Bean is also a liberal, and those DU types who think they're DINOs are certifiably insane; same goes for the FReepers who think that Lieberman would make a good GOP Senator.