[Artemis Webb]

"Let them go ahead and use the RINO label over and over and over again — pretty soon the term will be rendered useless. Actually, I think it already is."

Agreed. It's been used so much that it's meaning as been watered down to nothing. Now it means, "If I don't like you on a single issue or you're running against my FAVORITE candidate, you're a RINO".

[C. Edmund Wright]

You are right. I have some reservations about Perry - but he’s no RINO. A RINO originally was someone who benefits by trashing conservatives - someone whose career is based on getting love from the media and other liberals by being a pariah in the Republican Party. Think McCain, Graham, Snowe, Collins, etc.

Now true, this goes hand in hand with being liberal on policy, but the meaning of it used to be more of a mindset of trashing other Republicans, thus it was RINO and not CINO (conservative in name only).

[Mr Ramsbotham]

It's been used so much that it's meaning as been watered down to nothing. Now it means, "If I don't like you on a single issue or you're running against my FAVORITE candidate, you're a RINO".>

Precisely. If Perry is a RINO, what's Olympia Snow, or Mike Castle?