Oh, how I wish they'd read this at the Weekly Standard and the National Review.
re: You think you can snicker at people behind their backs, write them off as a lunatic fringe, and then come around smiling every two years for a vote?
Just, wow.
Actually this is old news. Repubs continually try to have it both ways.
On the one hand, they embrace social conservatives BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY CAN'T WIN WITHOUT THEM (as Nov 7 proved).
On the other hand, they make a show of the party as "a big tent" that embraces all views (which also pumps up campaign contributions).
It appears Repubs overplayed their hand and that the Nov 7 debacle resulted from the all-important Christian base stalking off the Repub reservation in high dungeon, unable to stomach the party's high-handed tactics to undermine the issues they value.
One of the party's major errors was to let loose pro-abort, gay-worshipping Rudy Giuliani. The RNC paraded Giuliani around to campaign for numerous Republicans. To a man, all of them went down to defeat.
Repubs chased away the important voter base that would have given them those crucial margins of victory. Ironically, at the same time Repubs were turning off their base, Dims were calculatedly refiguring their message, and their candidates, to appeal to these same voters.