Prescott, the patrician Connecticut senator, epitomized liberal Republicanism. He supported Thomas Dewey, denounced Joe McCarthy, and believed in noblesse oblige. His son George personified his party's journey to Reaganism, gradually jettisoning his liberal stands on race, abortion, and taxes without dispelling the far right's doubts. W., as many have noted, is more Texan than Yankee, more conservative on taxes and regulation than any president since Warren Harding. His Svengali, Karl Rove, trumpets his fondness for TR's rivals William McKinley and Mark Hanna, who nurtured the GOP's alliance with the robber barons. Rove and Bush represent, of course, the heart of today's Republican Party.