MIRROR, MIRROR WHO'S THE MOST CONSERVATIVE OF THEM ALL?

Arizona Sen. John McCain may be the only one of the three men to take an official step toward a presidential run in '08, but McCain, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are all laying claim to the title of the only "true" conservative in the race - whatever that means.

Brownback in today's Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World (via the AP):

"I think there's room for a full-scale Ronald Reagan conservative in the field.

"I fully agree that other people have much higher name identification than I do. No question about that. But I think what you have to look at is the policy positions they get out once you have an effective campaign."

McCain on Bloomberg.com (quoted from his appearance on Meet The Press last Sunday):

"I am a conservative Republican in the school of Ronald Reagan - who, by the way, brought our party back after a defeat in 1976 and gave us hope and optimism."

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, quoted today in the Washington Examiner, comparing himself to McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani:

"We're in a different place on immigration; we're in a different place on campaign reform; we're in a different place on same-sex marriage; we're in a different place on the president's policy on interrogation of detainees.

"I'm a conservative Republican, there's no question about that."

Meanwhile, in New York City, a liberal group threatened yesterday to "swift boat" Rudy Giuliani, to shine a light on what the group feels was Giuliani's heavy-handed approach to city goverment, or what he called improvement of the quality-of-life in the city.

Giuliani is NOT claiming to be the a "true" conservative, but in today's New York Post, John Podhoretz argues the former mayor's enemies at home may just raise his stock among GOP primary voters.

"On issue after issue of concern to America's conservatives - the misuse of the welfare system, the destructive effects of bilingual education, the disastrous misuse of public monies by municipal unions, the need for tax cuts, the essential requirement of supporting the city's police against unjust attack as they risked their lives to secure civil peace - Rudy fought." -- John Podhoretz New York Post