Disagree with your definition. I always understood RINO to basically mean someone who’s a liberal/moderate Republican. Basically a continuation of the old Rockefeller Republican. Same thing, new name. It’s the GOP version of the blue dog democrat.
I don’t think there’s an official Merriam-Webster’s definition in any event But Wikipedia seems to agree with the above definition.
By RINO pundits it was pretty clear she was referring to folks like Will, Krauthammer, who are more on the side of the establishment.
I agree with you on Newt, but I think the earlier versions of Romney fit the bill. He even admitted he wasn’t a Republican during the Reagan era. When he ran for the Senate he said he considered that R stood more for reform than for Republican, said he didn’t back the Contract with America, and basically disdained partisan affiliation. Same when he ran for Gov in 2002. He said he was a progressive. To top it off he was openly pro choice and anti gun. That’s pretty much a northeastern Republican in the Bill Weld/Christie Whitman mode, i.e. a RINO.
If you considered fair treatment for black people in the Souf' to be "Liberal", I suppose they were "Liberal".
Eventually even their racist opponents came over to the Republican banner on other issues ~ finance, highways, military, foreign affairs, international trade.
The RINOs were simply Democrats who agreed to run on the Republican ticket in the South ~ they got party support (from Northern Republican interests) and agreed to caucus with any Republicans in legislative bodies, or in Congress.
This actually had a great deal to do with the way the Democrat party is organized. It's made up of a number of factions and at one time had no black people. You could advance through political ranks along two paths ~ through the party chairs, or through your own faction.
Sometimes you'd find someone who wasn't advancing through the party chairs or through his own faction but who wanted political office. The Republican party was a third option, plus they didn't have to run in a primary, just the general election, and that really changed the math.
A publicly popular or charismatic individual could sometimes win office that way.
BTW, as Ann Coulter instructed everyone the Democrats for many years regularly assassinated anyone running as a Republican in a Southern state. Her count was that the Democrats had killed over 35,000 Republicans ~ there was less risk to running a Democrat as a Republican than to run a Republican as a Republican.
Politics changed in the 1940s and 1950s and more Real Republicans popped up in the Souf' and ran for office successully. Then, in the 1960s the Democrat main prop was destroyed. They could no longer just kick black people around.
At some point a younger crowd got the idea that being a Rockefeller Republican in the North East turned you into a RINO ~ which was simply mistaken since none of those guys except Arlan Specter had ever been Democrats.
We also have the abortion question dividing us ~ there are people who like to kill babies ~ Snow, Collins, etc. They also don't care to run as Democrats because of all the other Democrat "cr*p".
Most of us have purged them out of the core of the Republican party but there's that lingering bunch who hold office. They are NOT NOW NOR WERE THEY EVER RINOs ~ and they weren't ever Democrat office holders, nor did they ever run as Democrats. They caucus with Republicans in the Senate, and in state legislatures, and sometimes their votes count.
Today we only have a few REAL RINOs in the South. Shelby and Perry are two.
Commie
Marxist
Fabian
Nazi
Socialist
Progressive
Leftwingtard
Left-winger
Puke
Dogsh**
Democrat
and so on.
USE THEM.
Do not associate the term "Republican", our primary label, with ANY OF THAT STUFF!
Our job is to drive back the darkness, not give away our name to its foul agents and acolytes.