The "compassionate conservatism" of Ronald Reagan's day always seemed a token gesture at best, seeing as the tide of thoughtful conservative discourse had already begun to turn in the direction its bluntly fundamentalist religious masters were steering it. And fueled by the more sub-rosa Neo-Con agenda which lay beneath its pious, platitude-spouting exterior, the idea of genuine compassion seemed jokey from the start, a crumb thrown the Left's way.