Am I A Republican? Only When its Necessary:
Andrew Sullivan has this to say:
THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN WAR: The current tussle in the Congress over the budget is just a precursor to what I think will be outright Republican civil war after this election. If Bush wins, it will cripple his ability to get anything done. If he loses, the recriminations will get vicious. The fiscal conservatives will be fighting the "deficits-don't-matter" crowd. The realists will be out to topple the neocons. The Santorum-Ashcroft axis will continue to wage war on any Republicans not interested in legislating either the Old Testament or the dictates of the Vatican. ...
No single party can be both for individual liberty and for theologically-based social policy; both for fiscal balance and drunken-sailor spending; both for interventionism abroad and against moralism in foreign policy. The incoherence is just too deep, the tensions too strained.

I don't know anything about an overall Republian war but I connect with Sullivan's ambivalence to what has transpired with the current White House, but for different reasons then most. After supporting the President in 2000, I feel sold out on the highest level - I voted for Bush because of his stated desire to reign in big government. I should have seen during the Medicare debates that he was more apt to compromise for short term gain then seriously hold the line. Now we have the biggest growth in government spending since Carter. I thought Bush was for free trade. Then we had steel tariffs and continued tariffs on sugar and textiles. Against wasteful government subsidies? Don't get me started on the farm ones.

After these betrayls, I have lost faith in the Republican party to represent my interest. Yet I still realize that I prefer them to the Democrats. So instead of blindly voting for the Republicans, my attitude is to consider myself a member of two parties. On close stuff, I support Republicans, but on other matters, I do what I can to put the word out for liberterians.

My new rule of thumb - while a "big tent" is necessary to win, in the current enivornment the prize of winning just isn't all that valuable.