Not with a bang but a whimper

Krugman notices that Republicans may flirt with truth but they end up parroting the party line:

...it’s true that there are some Republican intellectuals and pundits who seem to be truly open-minded about both economic and social issues. But I worded that carefully: they “seem to be” open-minded; indeed, they’re professional seemers. When it matters, they can always be counted on — after making a big show of stroking their chins and agonizing — to follow the party line, and reject anything that doesn’t go along with the preacher-plutocrat agenda. If they don’t deliver when it counts, they are excommunicated; see Frum, David.

Funny, exactly the same thing happens in Canada, too.
Some Con backbencher or pundit or columnist takes a brief fling with reality -- and then the media go all fluttery with the excitement of somebody maybe actually switching sides or voting against the Harper Conservatives -- until finally the whole thing just quietly collapses, ending not with a bang but a whimper and we all go bouncing off to the next thing...oh, look, let's talk about the War of 1812 again....