What's in a label?

Andrew Sullivan, today:

Just so you know where I'm coming from. I'm not a liberal. I believe in small government, balanced budgets, welfare reform, and a flat tax. I'm against affirmative action and hate crime laws. Personally, I'm pro-life, although I can live in a society in which legal first trimester abortions are safe, legal and rare. I'm pro-marriage - I just want everyone to have access to the family structure. I was for the Iraq war. I published the Danish cartoons. I wore a Reagan '80 button in an English high school. I'm a Catholic. I would never have voted for the Medicare prescription bill because we simply cannot afford it. In other words: don't get your hopes up. I'm not on the left, whatever the religious right is now saying about me.

In other words, "Hello, I'm Democrat Harold Ford, Jr."