E.J. Dionne has some interesting analysis of conservative infighting and division

For years, many of the elite conservatives were happy to harvest the votes of devout Christians and gun owners by waging a phony class war against "liberal elitists" and "leftist intellectuals." Suddenly, the conservative writers are discovering that the very anti-intellectualism their side courted and encouraged has begun to consume their movement. 

The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity -- and Sarah Palin. Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans, learned manifestoes by direct-mail hit pieces.

I thought it odd that Grover Norquist made a reference to "Reagan republicans" energized by Palin earlier, but in this context, it makes much more sense. Norquist uses Reagan's name as a catch-all talisman, a shorthand for the good ole conservative heyday before the American public wised up to some crucial truths (via Digby):

...George W. Bush and the GOP Congress did precisely what Reagan did: They cut taxes, mainly on the well-to-do, but they barely touched spending.

I wonder when, or if, pundits or voters will internalize the fact that this is not an accident, but rather a conscious feature of conservative governance. They get into office, cut taxes on the rich and steal taxpayer money for their walthy contributors....it's no longer logical to assume that it's not intentional....

The Reagan Myth makes it difficult to make that connection and convince people that the so-called "failed" presidents are actually standard conservative politicians doing what conservative politicians always do.

Is this the year the majority of Americans wises up and realizes that they never get to be GOP cronies with their hands in the taxpayer's wallets but are, instead, the suckers perpetually taken for a ride by the modern Republican party?  With reports of circular firing squads forming within GOP ranks and among McCain's top advisors, I guess we'll see.