The London Telegraph has been rolling out its list of the 100 Most Influential American Conservatives, twenty at a time, all week. The exercise has been somewhat dubious, clearly seeming to be aimed (successfully) at attracting attention from American bloggers, and I’ve refrained from commenting on it until now. They’ve now released the final installment, #1-20, and I must says it’s one poorly conceived list. Or, mere precisely, it’s a pretty good list but a simply bizarre ranking.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/exclusions/uselection/nosplit/uscons1-20.xml

Almost a joke.
What really IS "conservative" and influential to WHOM ?

Not knowing what American politics is really all about,
I can appreciate their superficial grasp of what's
driving the "beltway" scheme. It's all about pandering
to special interest groups and maintaining their
strangle hold on power. They've probably never
heard of "rino". There are only a hand-full that have
earned my trust.