whipped dog conservative
A conservative who is so afraid of ostracism by liberals that he instinctively pulls punches, ducks fights, and asks his supporters to be content with minimal victories or defeats that could have been worse.
Rush Limbaugh once accused the Republican majorityof acting like 'whipped puppy dogs.' An illustrative case would be the call by certain neoconservatives for a "twenty year national debate" on abortion before moving forward with pro-life legislation. A whipped dog conservative would pretend to find this reasoning persuasive, since it gives him an excuse to duck a fight.