Purchasing Power: Eno put me to the test last week, and I carefully dodged it until today. His question was who is pulling the purse-strings of the GOP? You mentioned the NRA as a possible candidate, but also mentioned that perhaps the GOP is too "diverse" to narrow it down to one source. Well, how about the "Religious Right"? I briefly went looking for numbers to support my position, but as usual, it's going to be seat-of-the-pants "analysis". Clearly, the established religious groups aren't giving money to the Dems, unless you could find evidence of maybe Southern Baptists donating along skin color, as opposed to denominational, lines. One would imagine the Catholics, the evangelists, the white baptists, and a goodly portion of the Protestants are with the GOP. Stereotypically, one would presume the Jews lean more to the left, but with all that goes on in Israel, I don't know that you can make that assumption - there have to be plenty of Jewish hawks. Anyway, with all of the religious rhetoric that comes out of the Bush camp, I'd have to think he's either wooing the fundamentalists, or paying them back. Just my two cents.