The near-godlike status of Ronald Reagan among conservatives is contradicted by his rarely acknowledged inconsistencies (including multiple tax increases), as Josh Green argued in the Washington Monthly. But it’s rare to see conservatives admitting this.

That’s why it’s surprising to see one of the Bush devotees at Power Line pointing out the truth about Reagan:

Beyond that, when, exactly, has this country ever elected the sort of pure conservative that this group, as depicted by the Times, yearns for? These Reagan alumni have perhaps forgotten how disappointed conservatives were through most of Reagan’s administration. (Remember “Let Reagan be Reagan”?) And who, if we put Reagan to one side, is the conservative paragon that the current candidates don’t live up to? William McKinley, maybe? I can’t think of anyone else in the last century.

Mitt Romney is even telling a joke about Reagan’s inconsistency:

Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has tried to explain his conversion on abortion rights, from support to opposition, with a made-for-television story: As he listened to a Harvard researcher discussing stem-cell science, and the destruction of embryos, he saw the antiabortion cause in a new light.

At some recent conferences for social conservatives, Mr. Romney has used a line that some conservatives find credible: “On abortion I was not always a Ronald Reagan conservative. Neither was Ronald Reagan.”

What will the Reagan hagiographers do?