Here’s my latest column for TCS Daily (note their fancy new name).

Essentially, everyone at CPAC wants to be Reagan’s heir — not G.W.B.’s:

That the Republican Party has arrived, to paraphrase Reagan, at
another time for choosing, has become undeniable. While all candidates
for the GOP nomination in 2008 will be positioning themselves as the
heirs to Bush’s leadership in the War on Terror (though, perhaps, with
some refinements), it is difficult to imagine any candidate declaring
himself or herself Bush’s domestic heir.

In looking for a way forward, then, many — as they did over and
over again at CPAC — reach back to Reagan. There was a conservatism
that was sunny, optimistic, resolute in its pursuit of American
security and wedded to conservative principle.

Republicans may recall, as Pence quoted Reagan saying in a 1975
address to CPAC: "A political party cannot be all things to all people.
It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be
compromised to political expediency, simply to swell its ranks."

Republicans have had quite enough of political expediency from 1999
to now. The question is whether conservatives can any longer agree on
their fundamental beliefs. They’ve got roughly two years to figure it
out.

It’s gonna be a fun two years.