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Right wing says Bush sold them out

February 6, 2006 06:39 AM / Bush Leagues .

Conservatives have long had doubts about whether or not George W. Bush is really one of them and the big government programs the President proposed in his State of the Union address have the shaking their heads and wondering what the heck is going on.

Writes Linda Feldman in the Christian Science Monitor:

From the moment George W. Bush began campaigning for the Oval Office in 1999, White House watchers have wondered what kind of president he would be: The Ronald Reagan of his generation? Like his father, the first President Bush? Perhaps even, in some ways, similar to Bill Clinton?

This year's State of the Union address, which was panned by a chorus of conservative commentators, has intensified the debate about Bush's political philosophy.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page accused President Bush of playing "miniball," code for a Clintonian love of "small political ideas." Robert Novak reported private concern among congressional conservatives that Mr. Bush was moving toward bigger government. George Will called Bush's most memorable line - that America is addicted to oil - "wonderfully useless."

"He's conservative by temperament; many of his policy positions, such as cutting taxes, are on the right side of the political spectrum," says John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio. "But he doesn't have a consistent set of conservative principles. That's what a lot of the complaint has been about, especially after the State of the Union."

Specifically, Bush's education initiative, No Child Left Behind, and the expensive new prescription-drug benefit for seniors have left many conservatives wondering whatever happened to the party's commitment to small federal government. Bush's immigrant guest-worker program also divides Republicans. And as the Iraq war drags on, so, too, are conservatives increasingly conflicted.

Columnists, of course, aren't usually running for election, or trying to protect their party's slim majority in Congress, as Bush is doing. And they often don't represent the views of rank-and-file voters. A Gallup poll of State of the Union watchers, two-thirds of whom were Republicans, showed a 75 percent positive rating, including 48 percent who were "very" positive.

But pundits can also be the canary in the coal mine. When Bush nominated his counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, conservative columnists raised doubts about her reliability on key issues. Her nomination was withdrawn.

Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail guru who helped fuel the Reagan revolution of 1980, asserts that Bush's inconsistency as a conservative has alarmed many of the most active members of the party - the donors, fundraisers, and grass-roots activists who drive turnout on election day. A recent online poll by Mr. Viguerie of more than 1,000 conservative activists found that 67 percent say Bush is not governing as a conservative, and 64 percent give him a D or an F on government spending.

Even though Bush won't be on the ballot, conservative disappointment in him could hurt the Republican Party in this November's midterm elections, he says.

"The party has been hijacked by big-government Republicans," says Viguerie, hinting that it might be good for the party to lose congressional power later this year. "The importance of losing elections is greatly underrated," he adds. "There's not any way Ronald Reagan would have been elected in 1980 if [Gerald] Ford had been elected in '76."

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Comments

I very much like your new format and REALLY like the ability to comment directly to an article!

Keep up the great work and thanks for all the informative articles,

Mike

Posted by Mike Sloane at February 6, 2006 07:57 AM

I like the new format. It makes it easier to read. Keep up the good work...and thanx for your work! If it weren't for you, we'd never know the truth!

Posted by Nancy Myrick at February 6, 2006 08:37 AM

Big government. Small government. The point is being completely missed here.

We should be talking about the empire. Without a base to back the empire it can only fail. Big government connected to big spending without a direct benifit to the masses of the empire will not support the empire.

An empire does not suck its' base dry and expect that same base to sign up for the war. An empire is suppose to be enriched by those they defeat. The empire living off itself, stripping its' base must fail.

If bush wants to be emperor of the world, he better grow a brain first. Otherwise he should pack up his coloring books and biky and go back to texas and leave the empire building to the adults. Comparing him to TR or FDR is grossing me out. Every president until now has been an educated man, and none of them colored in a coloring book, nor was riding a bicycle considered a major achievement.

Posted by esromel at February 6, 2006 08:59 AM

The only people George Bush looks after are the wealthy people of his social class. He is their president only but not the president of all the people. Remember this fact; this self-proclaimed, born-again 'compassionate conservative' presided over 152 executions while he was governor of Texas. That was more than the sum total of all the executions in the other 49 states during the same period. You can be sure that all those executed were all poor people.
People in Bush's social class who commit capital crimes can afford lawyers so none of them ever are executed for their crimes.
Bush is succeeding in resurrecting a landed Aristocracy in America just as there was in the anti-bellum South. When he is done implementing his agenda there will be no middle claqss. There will only be three classes; the Aristocracy, poor blacks and poor white trash' in the United States. Then he and members of his Aristocracy intend to govern by playing the 'poor white trash' against the poor blacks. This is what they have always done.
That is the game plan George 'Dubya' Bush is intending for the rest of us non-Aristocats in America.

Posted by Mit Zties at February 6, 2006 09:32 AM

You may want to strike the non-word "its'" from your typing vocabulary.

Posted by td at February 6, 2006 09:34 AM

If you are saying Bush is the Gerald Ford of our generation, I can live with that. Though it seemed to me the only damage Gerald did was pardon Nixon and company. Bush is consistently inconsistent.

He is a neo-con, what more need be said!

Posted by MT at February 6, 2006 10:05 AM

Yes, like the new format, and the ability to comment. But any comment here about Bush is mainly preaching to the choir.

Posted by Joe at February 6, 2006 10:24 AM

I've questioned my conservative friends' support of Dubya and his decidedly unconservative neocon agenda since 9/11: lies to get us in a war with no exit strategy; nearly $250 billion and more than 2,200 American lives in the same war (not to mention tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives); holding American and foreign nationals unconstitutionally without charges or legal representation; torture; spying on American citizens; a "unitary executive" branch of government which sets itself above the law. The list goes on and on. What is conservative about any of that? These people are not conservative, they detest and actively undermine the Constitution and they don't consider anyone their friend who disagrees with them, conservative or not. Neocon=Fascist. It's as simple as that. And all Americans forget that fact at their peril.
Also, love the new comment format. You guys are doing a great job! Thanks!

Posted by lb at February 6, 2006 10:36 AM

Hi,
I love your new format. I read your news every day and I am so very glad that you killed that silly roach running around all over the site!
Have a wonderful day!
Marie

Posted by Marie Caldwell at February 6, 2006 11:20 AM

I absolutely love the new format!

Posted by shirley at February 6, 2006 11:30 AM

I also like this new format. Before, leaving a simple comment was like the choice of having to face the Minotaur...choosing not to go there.

Posted by Wedjat at February 6, 2006 11:35 AM

I used to think Harvard and Yale were top notch schools. But now, they let someone like Bush pass through their system and the man has the curiosity and intelligence of a fungus. What does that say about our much hallowed ivy league?

Posted by Ganymede at February 6, 2006 12:03 PM

Of course, the only reason W got to Harvard and Yale were because he was a "legacy"; another aristocratic relic. If he was plain George W, then he would have been lucky to get to East Podunk Community College.

Posted by Blue Jean at February 6, 2006 12:31 PM

Format much improved, however, appreciated your site greatly even beforehand - this Canadian is observing. Do hope your countrymen are seriously intending to oust "this Emperor without any clothes"(Bush), along with those who have adopted the diseased Wolfowitz philosophy for your Nation. You've a beautiful country, and are in the main, a people of vision. Please, don't allow the intelligent and far reaching principals of Freedom your U.S.A. was built upon be further eroded.

Posted by Gail at February 6, 2006 12:52 PM

I don't like the new format...It is terrible! I preferred the old columns....easier to read, more informative.

If the new format continues I will probably stop reading them.That would be a shame because I really enjoyed the fresh attitudes by the other writers and the staff.

Don

Posted by Don Purvis at February 6, 2006 01:09 PM

Why do you make it so difficult to mail an article to someone? ????

Posted by Joan Fry at February 6, 2006 02:00 PM

What was it that made people vote for Bush in the first place?If you leave out the crap about being a "Born-again Christain" Bush has absloutely nothing going for him! Failed businessman,Failed oilman,3rd rate Governor.Please ,someone who adores this man tell me what made you vote for him!He was asleep at the wheel on 9-11,,hasn't caught Bin-Laden,or the Anthrax Mailers.Claims the economy is roaring,but if it's so great why are the defecits soaring with no end in sight?
Come on you little puppies that sniff Bushs'Butt daily tell me where I'm wrong!

Posted by Billy-Bob Jones at February 6, 2006 02:54 PM

"Jail to the thief"..."One nation under fraud"

"Furious George"(definate monkey connection)...

"Uncle Sham"..were all burning in HELLiburton...

Posted by al bundy at February 6, 2006 05:53 PM

I just wish Americans would wake up. Put aside the partisan labels (right, left, republican, democrat) and realize that we can all succeed if we elect people of good conscience and not shills for parties, elitists and special interests.

To those who think a party is important to them...wake up. In the end, when the U.S. is mired in debt and no longer a superpower, you'll all be crying while we all say "I told you so." You don't have to like liberals or conservatives to want what's best for our children and our country.

TRUE patriots can see both sides of the coin and stake out a position that is best for all. Those that do not, do so at their own risk.

Posted by byronebyronian at February 6, 2006 06:18 PM

Bush's Record:
Thousands Dead
Millions Unemployed
Billions Squandered
Trillions of Debt.

Posted by al bundy at February 6, 2006 07:02 PM

Bush is the Antichrist-yes I said it; the revolution is coming this year or the human spieces will begin to die out by it's own hand-THAT IS ALL

Posted by chuck chuck razool at February 6, 2006 07:08 PM

I FIND IT VERY HARD TO PRINT YOUR ARTICLES FROM THIS FORMAT. I LIKED YOUR OLD FORMAT BETTER.

Posted by BERT ROSEN at February 6, 2006 07:09 PM

Hate your new format. What a waste for computer screen. At least an option to go full screen would be helpful.

Posted by at February 6, 2006 09:12 PM

"From the moment George W. Bush began campaigning for the Oval Office in 1999, White House watchers have wondered what kind of president he would be..."

Well, now we know: the worst one in the history of the country. But I and one or two others knew that ever since 2000 if not before.

George W. is to the country as pig and cattle waste are to the underground water tables.

Posted by Leonard at February 7, 2006 08:27 AM

The new format is good. The article was informative.

Bush is a neocon, echo....

I suppose once he was elected to his second term he was free to pursue his own agenda. It is encouraging to see broad discontent from traditional Conservatives, perhaps there is hope to reign in the Unitary Executive.

Posted by LC at February 7, 2006 12:16 PM

ewkdudnc biorkyng

Posted by Augustine at March 3, 2006 03:37 AM

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