Thirty years after the birth of the conservative movement, some stalwarts worry the shark may be heading into shallow waters.

Notwithstanding this "water" metaphor ... not a drop about Katrina.

Mr. Mehlman said, “If a shark doesn’t keep moving he dies.”

"We have taken risks and we have changed," Broccoli told Reuters in New York recently.
"If you don't change you die."

Grover Norquist compared Tuesday’s election to the story of the princess and the pea, with the pea being liberal governance.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look.
...
In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”

"The problem is we’re identified with it. If the wagon goes off the cliff, you’re likely to go with it."

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

“It will perhaps take ... something electric ... [a] terrible shock to a lot of people, and then I think conservative reservoirs of thought would be consulted.”

Apparently the big K was insufficiently shocking.

For Conservatives, It’s Back to Basics