I get a lot of this sort of email. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate, but it’s revealing that the perception is so common:

you write: “So where does this idea that conservatives (as opposed to the GOP strategists) love ag pork on principle or as a partisan tool come from? “
B/c, have you not noticed – despite your friendliness with some at TNR for instance – that liberals simply cannot give conservatives a compliment or agree with them at all – there always has to be a back-handed compliment/insult attached.
That is why it drives me crazy that NRO types are always so effusive in praise of liberal writers, i.e., Andrew Sullivan is a “serious guy”, Chait is “smart” and serious”, etc., etc. I’m sure you do this type of thing in the hopes of improving discourse, but I have yet to see the favor returned by those on the left – or even someone like Sullivan who claims not to be on the left.