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To still the siren of the heart and defer to the head is to seldom be wrongly led.

So many wrong things feel so right. "You know, I really told my mother-in-law off the other day and, boy, did it feel good." Of course, what has changed? Your mother-in-law is still the nag she always was. One change, though, is that now your family politics has descended into the abyss.

This occurs to me when I hear my political soul mates talk of sitting on their hands this election cycle. I hear pundits and plebeians both make pronouncements about how we have to "clean house" and teach the straying Republican Party a lesson. "Why, we'll show 'em! Take us for granted, will you!"

Now, perhaps my grasp of the principles of hygiene is flawed, but my understanding is that you can't clean a house by replacing the dust with toxic waste. So, let's see if we can learn a lesson here today.

I'm as disappointed in the liberal tendencies of the neo-con lot as you are. Personally, I'd like to be coronated king and have the Weimar Republicans perform menial labor around the palace. And maybe Lindsey Graham could be my court jester. But you know what is even more amusing about this fantasy than the scenario itself? It's just slightly more fanciful than the notion that replacing neo-cons with neo-communists will, in a political galaxy not so far, far away, yield better government.

Every election presents us with a real opportunity to clean house and House -- and Senate. It's called the "primaries." This is when true conservatives, be they major party players or the rarest of breeds -- a viable third-party candidate -- can be chosen over inside-the-beltway retreads. And understand that when we complain about some of the Republicans running in the general election, we are complaining about Republican voters' primary choices. And the time to address that was before the primaries -- not now.

And don't tell me we don't have the opportunities. Sure, such individuals may not always capture the backing of the intermittently feckless Republican leadership, but they run. And when the voters run away from them, it sends the wrong message. If we want to teach liberal Republicans a lesson, we need to nominate conservative ones.

One such opportunity materialized during the Illinois gubernatorial primaries. Conservative dairy magnate Jim Oberweis sought the Republican nomination, hoping to unseat leftist governor Rod Blagojevich, who I not so affectionately call Blago the Terrible. Instead of choosing fresh milk, however, the Republicans of Illinois opted for old cheese. They nominated Judy Baar Topinka, a political hack whose liberal views are largely indistinguishable from Blago's. Anyway, how it shakes out is that slim just left town for Topinka, and the Blago the Terrible infection will continue to metastasize, making it a very Ill-inois indeed. Hey, people get the government they deserve.

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