How the GOP civil war started

Millions of self-described conservatives manned the trenches for George W. Bush and the GOP. By the end of his presidency, many of them felt whupped by their own party. Now some of them are fighting back.

Case in point is the Not One Penny to the National Republican Senatorial Committee campaign, a boycott launched by conservatives who believed the NRSC -- an official party structure -- was systematically favoring moderate candidates in GOP primaries. Whenever possible, conservatives feared, the national party was trying to coronate the moderates and avoid competitive primaries altogether.

The Not One Penny crusaders first took to the blogosphere and social networking websites after the NRSC decided to weigh into the Florida Senate race on behalf of Gov. Charlie Crist, who was running to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez. But a former state house speaker, Marco Rubio, was also a candidate. Both in Florida and across the country, many activists considered Rubio the better conservative. They resented what they saw as meddling by Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who chairs the NRSC.