With all this wimpering about conservatism=macho, why would someone want to be a

Personally, I think it's latent homosexuality that drives someone to want to be Conservative. With the Ted Haggards and the Mark Foleys, and now the Ken Mehlmans, of the world, it's obvious that a lot of Republicans are fighting something in their own nature that they are scared of... Notice I said "a lot", not "all"- there are exceptions to every rule. I'll quote the neocons' favorite whipping boy, Bill Maher, from Larry King Live the other night:

"It's so ironic. Republicans, the anti-abortion party, always trying to kill something inside of themselves. And Frank Rich wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. He said, yes, we've heard about Mark Foley, and then every week, it seemed another Congressman was outed. But he said, that's just the beginning of it. A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican Party are gay."

...I think there is a lot of truth in that. Why would anyone who is secure with themselves have a problem with what other people do in their private lives??

I think you might be onto something there...