So when is a Conservative not a Conservative?

When you lose elections. Then suddenly, the actions and policies you've been touting and promoting are the actions of faux-Conservatives whose water you no longer wish to carry. It's laughable how desperately these guys don't want to admit they are out of step with America.

Harold Meyerson has more:

On their journey through the stages of grief, conservatives don't yet seem to have gotten past denial.

[..]Holding conservatism blameless for last week's Republican debacle may stiffen conservative spines, but the very idea is the product of mushy conservative brains unwilling to acknowledge the obvious: that conservatism has never been more ascendant than during George Bush's presidency; that the Republican Party over the past six years moved well to the right of the American people on social, economic, and foreign policy; and that on November 7 the American people chose a more pragmatic course. Read on...

WaPo reports that insiders are turning against Bush