Here we are -- the non-McCainiacs -- just minding our own business and contemplating such lofty ideals as party unity while the McCainiac cabal lobs yet more rhetorical cruise missiles our way. Hold your fire, boys, we're trying to meet you at the peace table.

If I were just slightly inclined toward the conspiratorial, I'd wonder whether this were an orchestrated assault by the McCain forces against the recalcitrant. Could more be going on than meets the eye?

Given the aggressiveness of McCain's soldiers, I'm thinking they are not as interested in a rapprochement with Reagan conservatives as they are in taking over the party from them.

If they were seeking reunification, would they be making their attacks personal? Would they be suggesting that those not-yet-warm to John are afflicted with McCain Derangement Syndrome? Would they be salivating over their delusional fantasy that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham are losing their influence?

You'd think they'd think twice before hurling invectives toward the very base of the Republican Party, whose support in the general election is indispensable to McCain.

Not to worry, say the McCainiac lieutenants. "We're not directing our fire at the base. We're just criticizing its self-appointed spokesmen: Rush, Sean, Mark, Laura and assorted winger pundits. Those fire-breathing loudmouths don't represent the base, but only a 'very conservative' group, which is statistically insignificant."

McCainiac elitists should be careful not to discount the depth and breadth of the angst out there against this ongoing abandonment of conservative principles under the Republican umbrella. It's not just Rush, Sean, Mark and Laura.

If they could see my e-mails alone, they'd be shocked. Just think of what the others are receiving. To be sure, I'm receiving plenty from people chiding me -- after misreading my columns -- for refusing to support McCain and thereby facilitating the election of Hillary or Obama and all that entails.

Let me say it again, more directly: I will support McCain if he's the nominee. So please quit putting words in my mouth. I won't, however, stop trying to make him accountable to the base and to pull him to the right.

But it doesn't appear McCain's henchmen will be satisfied with the mere support of the base. And they darn sure won't cotton to our efforts to keep McCain from straying further to the left. Continued...