According to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Dick Polman, the Republicans are so upset at each other that they're even resorting to calling each other "homo-lovers":

Gary Bauer, another religious-conservative leader, is attacking Grover Norquist, a prominent tax-cut activist, for his decision last week to share his economic conservatism with an audience of gay Republicans.

But I'm not surprised. Because Bauer's not just accusing Norquist of cozying up to the gays; according to Ramesh Ponnuru he's rejected economic conservatism in general:

Gary Bauer, in a more modest and principled way, has left the economic-conservative fold on taxes, Social Security, and trade. Libertarian ideas are in retreat in the conservative intellectual world, too.

All of these moves are motivated, essentially, by the fact that antistatism doesn't have much of a constituency in American politics. Or to put it another way, libertarians don't pull their electoral weight within the conservative coalition. That's why values statism has been so successful. And that's what Bush and McCain, in particular, are responding to. It's not that there is a huge constituency for a big-government conservatism; it's that Republicans who have given up on limited government have to come up with something else to talk about.

I never really thought that social and economic conservatism were natural allies, so I can't say I'm surprised by any of this.

But with economic conservatism getting the official Republican heave-ho, where does that leave economic conservatives?

(I guess they'll just have to sit around until there's an economic disaster, and then break out into a chorus of "I told you so." Meanwhile, if they support the war and oppose socialism, they'll probably continue swallowing what remnants of pride they have and hold their nose while voting Republican.)

UPDATE: Meanwhile, disgruntled Republicans and other conservatives should read this week's Carnival of the RINOs.

MORE: The above link doesn't seem to work, so just go to the Louisiana Libertarian to see the post.