“… it was understandable for Rove to pass me by. He is well aware of my unhappiness with President Bush and the GOP congressional leadership—it’s all spelled out in my latest book, “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause“ (Bonus Books, 2006). The last thing he needed that night was to give me, an outspoken conservative with no desires for White House invitations, the opportunity, with the nation as audience via C-SPAN, to lob one at the President.”
Boy, who wouldn’t like a chance to
Karl, you’ve made a number of references tonight about how the Republican Party has lost its way. Well, the conservatives here tonight [the event was at Hillsdale College] — plus millions around the country—would like to have some comfort level that we will feel better about the next two years than we have the last few years. Because quite frankly, the conservatives are getting highly nervous about the early signals we’re getting from President Bush and his team: 1) The President said he is looking forward to working with the Democrats on amnesty for illegal aliens, 2) Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson has suggested that nothing is off the table regarding Social Security, which conservatives interpret as opening the door to tax increases and benefit cuts, and 3) the President and congressional Republicans decided to throw in the towel and not fight for one of the few conservatives in his administration, UN Ambassador John Bolton. So, Karl, in light of developments such as these, what assurances can you give us that the White House and the GOP will indeed return to basic conservative principles?
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What assurances indeed? And who would believe them?
The next two years are going to be even more disastrous than we dare to think about. What I can’t figure out is whether President Bush changed, or he was always like this and we just couldn’t see it, given the glaring radioactivity given off by his Democrat presidential opponents.
Is Bush a better choice than those two? “Yes,” she said reluctantly. And if he’d run with his true colors flying, I’d have voted for him by default. But like many others, like Mr. Viguerie, I feel betrayed.
At least Gore and Kerry let it all hang out for everyone to see…or, rather, Kerry tried to hide some of the more shameful parts but they kept showing up anyway.
2008 will be a race to see who can distance himself further from the White House. The dust clouds you’ll see will resemble the ones stirred up by those herds of buffalo that once covered the western plains. Only these dust clouds will be covering the tracks of the fleeing politicians.
6 comments:
The only problem with a guest worker program is that guests will not leave. Turkey is finding that out with their own guest worker program.
It sued to be that you could say with confidence that "liberal" = "Democrat" and "conservative" = "Republican".
But, as someone pointed out, the Founding Fathers were classical liberals. And today's Republicans - at least, those around the top, are not as conservative as the party once was.
A few decades ago, the Democrtaic party left me, so I moved over to the Republicans. Not that the Republicans are leaving me, I'm looking for a place to turn.
Aren't we all? A staunch Democrat friend has just left the party. He says there's no where to go so he's going choose a la carte.
That is probably the coming phenomenon and who knows which side will benefit from the huge dis-satisfaction with things as they are? The Dems have two years to mess up, and no doubt they will.
2008 doesn't even *look* interesting.
I too am hopeful that the Dems, in the next two years, will sew the seeds of a real Conservative takeover of the .gov in 2008.
(Hey, I can dream can't I?)
Karl Rove Didn't Have the Answers
I suspect he hasn't had the answers needed for about 4 years, at least. I've wondered for a long time how much of Bush's apparent feckless performance was due to the advice from his "architect". As long as the Republicans managed to squeak by with their narrow margins, I was willing to hold my nose and hope for the best while giving Rove grudging credit for some of the victories. Those hopes rose here when Rove's duties were reshuffled, with less influence on policy so he could concentrate on politics (or was it the other way around?). There seems to have been a crescendo of bad (IMO) decisions and weak positions which seemed out of character for Bush, but which seemed explicable if one factored in the influence of Rove's cunning counsel behind the scenes. Whatever the extent of Rove's culpability, George W. Bush will bear the burden of responsibility for what's shaping up to be a greatly disappointing performance. Like Rush Limbaugh said, I'm tired of carrying the water for those who don't deserve it.
2008 will be again about which party has screwed the country over the least, which side has less senators and congressmen being indicted, slandered, accused of corruption or all of the above simultaneously - in essence, about the lesser of two evils. My guess is that the Dems won't do any better, and will be forced to toe Republican policies for fear of backlash two years down the road - especially Iraq. If they deviate, judging from their limited capacity to work effectively and the abject failure to come up with any workable, coherent policy on almost anything significant, then we'll see them at the door.
Maybe Rove's belief in his architect-esque role as brilliant strategist blinded him to delusions of grandeur. Maybe he was overrated, or that the barrage of scandals, accusations and indictments proved too much even for the ingenious Rove himself.
Well, Bob Barr left the Republican Party for the Libertarian Party; why don't y'all think about it? If enough people leave and go to the Constitution Party of Libertarian Party we might have half a chance.
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