conservatives or selfservatives?

1) The rhetoric of the 2012 Republicans suggests they want to go far beyond where Reagan or Bush ever went.

2) Paul, Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, Romney and Perry stump for the elimination of departments and programs.

3) Republicans seek to dismantle much of the federal government, to leave us with states and cities fighting amongst themselves in a race to the bottom.

A superb plutocratic strategy, ey wot !

Clearly, neither sincerity nor integrity drive these candidates. Merely pandering.

Get this:

Perry officially retired in January so he could start collecting his lucrative pension benefits early, but he still gets to collect his salary — and has in turn dramatically boosted his take-home pay.

Perry has called for sweeping changes to Social Security for average workers and has railed against special “perks”

Perry makes a $150,000 annual gross salary as Texas governor. Now, thanks to his early retirement, Perry, 61, gets a monthly retirement annuity of $7,698 before taxes, or $6,588 net. That raises his gross annual salary to more than $240,000.

On a swing through Cherokee, Iowa, Perry was asked why the Employee Retirement System should be paying his retirement while he’s still collecting a salary.

“That’s been in place for decades. … I don’t find that to be out of the ordinary,” Perry said.

Is it conservatives or selfservatives we’re encountering these days?