Bush a right-winger? No way [Mulshine]

Newark Star Ledger ^ | 6/27/04 | Paul Mulshine

[Incorrigible]

Many of my readers are puzzled as to why I insist the Republican Party should dump George W. Bush and find another nominee for president.

Simple. Because I'm a right- winger. He's not.

If you doubt that, imagine for a second that Al Gore had been elected president. Imagine he had retained Bill Clinton's CIA director and, based on faulty intelligence, gotten the United States involved in a costly and apparently endless war in Iraq. And imagine that Gore said he was doing it for the good of the Iraqi people, that he felt we Americans had a duty to spend tens of billions helping these poor foreigners.

[Alberta's Child]

What makes this column so idiotic is that Paul Mulshine wouldn't be considered a "right-winger" anywhere but in the People's Republic of New Jersey.

[Southack]

"Socializing all airline security workers is a left wing extremist action in my view"

That's because you want to damn Bush if he did it, and you would have damned Bush if he didn't.

Because 3rd party radicals like you know full well that the clause to arm pilots was in the same bill as the clause to federalize all airport security workers.

So if Bush signed that bill into law, you get to slam him for federalizing airport workers ("it's socialist" or "it's left wing" your kind will whine).

But if Bush hadn't signed that bill, then you'd be bashing him for preventing pilots from being armed.

After all, both of those clauses were in the same bill.

[Carry_Okie]

Arming pilots in our cockpits is left wing extremism in your warped worldview?!

Although I agree with most of your list and the one above, this one is not correct. The bills have been signed but Mineta (a DEMOCRAT Bush appointed) is STILL dragging his feet arming the pilots. Bush hasn't fired his sorry ass for not fully implementing the law.

[Judith Anne]

Excellent posting on this thread. Thanks.

[Southack]

"Increasing federal spending by somewhere in the ballpark of a half trillion dollars since he has been in office is rather left wing extremist in my view."

You can't honestly define "spending" as being left wing.

It matters what you *get* for that spending, after all.

A free spender who bans abortions, promotes a national missile defense, and tears down Communist regimes, for instance, is not left wing (see: President Reagan, Mexico plan, Star Wars SDI, and the Berlin Wall).

You've confused mere "spending" with ideology. Spending alone doesn't tell you much about a person's ideology. President Carter cut federal spending on numerous programs for instance (e.g. B-1 bomber, Panama Canal defenses, Military Intel), but those funding cuts don't make him a right winger.

[Capitalism2003]

Bush is certainly not a conservative. Reagan vetoed almost 40 spending bills during his first term.

Bush = 0

Instead we have the Kennedy education bill...several hundred billion in farm subsidies, arts subsidies, new foreign aid, a 600 billion dollar medicare entitlement, and an overall 12.5% annual increase in NON DEFENSE spending. True conservatives are no longer welcome in the GOP.

[stljoe71]

President Carter cut federal spending on numerous programs

Which is exactly why I provided some specific examples of places where he has chosen spending increases like the department of ed. Don't even get me started on the "Freedom Core"

In any case I would have thought a conservative who saw the need for military spending would have also seen the need to ratchet down other spending instead of creating new entitlement programs.

[Southack]

"Although I agree with most of your list and the one above, this one is not correct. The bills have been signed but Mineta (a DEMOCRAT Bush appointed) is STILL dragging his feet arming the pilots. Bush hasn't fired his sorry ass for not fully implementing the law."

Loy, the former Coast Guard commandant, was named to replace Transportation Security Administration chief John Magaw, whom Secretary Norm Mineta fired last week for failing to implement Bush's law arming pilots

[Southack]

c#10

[FreedomSurge]

Bush is no right winger. He is mildly conservative. However he was absolutely the furthest right president who could have been elected at the time.

I don't like him but when the alternative is Beelzubub himself, wacha gonna do but support him.

[Carry_Okie]

From the article: ""One of the things I've asked Admiral [James] Loy to do is to look at this in terms of should we be taking another approach in terms of lethal versus nonlethal," Mineta told the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee."

Mineta is still dicking around. He should have been canned years ago.

[Alberta's Child]

You raise some very good points in your post, but your last sentence seems to indicate that you've overlooked something very obvious:

Without those "Reagan Democrats," the GOP would be a permanent opposition party at best.

[stljoe71]

Fact: Most conservatives are Republicans but most Republicans are not conservatives.

That is something I agree with.

You imply you are pleased with the republicans. Out of curiosity what is it you are looking for from the party then and how effectively do you believe they have delivered it?

Obviously what I am looking for is a roll back in federal spending and a return to strict construction of the constitution so it should be understandable why I am displeased with the republicans with a few rare exceptions.

[Southack]

http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2004/04/02/F1-bunn02-7199.html

[Southack]

"Obviously what I am looking for is a roll back in federal spending and a return to strict construction of the constitution so it should be understandable why I am displeased with the republicans with a few rare exceptions."

Such a narrow wish as rolling back federal spending is hardly right wing. President Kerry would be more than happy to reduce federal spending on our military, on our missile defense, and on our border patrols...things which you say would make you happy in that spending would have been reduced...but those are things that are far from being right wing.

[stljoe71]

OK shucks.

How about eliminating or at the very least rolling back all federal spending in areas that are not explicitly authorized in the constitution.

I don't know how the math comes out but I also might be for a net decrease in military spending if eliminating all of our nonsense efforts like Kosovo would amount to that although I doubt it.

[Southack]

That would be great, but that's not what you started out complaining about.

You started out calling President Bush a "left wing extremist" and now you are down to only saying that he just needs to cut some federal spending.

[colormebemused]

No matter which 'party' wins, things will remain the same.
More 'concern', more 'sincere wishes', more zionist lies
on the need to kill zionist enemies.

sigh.
dumb george or goofy kerry.
each is a puppet.
and the master picks his nose and
chortles on his chosen-ness.

[Carry_Okie]

From the article:

"We continue to hear more and more about threats to our planes, but the TSA continues to ignore the will of Congress by dragging their feet on arming our pilots," Bunning said in a statement.

So far, 2 percent of pilots are armed, according to Bunning. "That is simply unacceptable."

The reason the pilots aren't armed is that there are so many hurdles. If something happens because the policy wasn't implemented, Bush is accountable. Mineta is still dicking around. He should have been canned years ago.