I don't think Bush is very conservative except by comparison to someone like Kerry. No one should be
surprized by Gonzales - he's been long known to be a
liberal on most social issues. Transportation Secretary
Norman Minetta is so PC he would make alot of liberals
blush - he's even afraid to "profile" airline passengers
for Arab terrorists. The prescription drug benefit is the
largest entitlement since LBJ. The No Child Left Behind
Act was written by Ted Kennedy and is the largest boondoggle since Carter established the Ed. Dept. in
1976. The agriculture bill that he signed is 40% pork.
The fact is that Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill and
hasn't seen a spending package he doesn't like. I'm
not worried about the assault weapons bill because, as
another poster pointed out, it will NEVER pass in congress-
at least they got the message! On protecting the borders,
Bush is offering amnesty and exposing us to illegals and
potential terrorists as well as any member of al Qaeda
could wish.
You hit it on the head.
Many people seem to see the Republican gains the past 10 years or so as us winning the war, shifting the country the right. We aren't going to the right at all. What's happening is the Dems have gone off the deep end to the left and we're chasing after them to pickup enough of the center to get elected.
With demographics as they are now, this is the only way we can win. The government parasite class is as large as it has ever been and growing. Schools are more lefty than ever. There are more seniors wanting their checks and pills. There are 40 million Latinos too many of whom are poor and have fallen into the trap of voting socialist for social services.
For as long as this persists, a vaguely socially conservative authoritarian like Bush is about as attractive a choice as we're going to get, and the rest of the time it will be socially liberal authoritarians like Giuliani. And as bad as they are, we will donate, volunteer, and vote for them because the alternative will be the Blame America First crowd. Reagan would lose by 12 if not 15 percent today.
An authoritarian for the top federal cop position is exactly what we should expect, and gun grabbing is a big part of that. I didn't like much of what Ashcroft did, but he was alright on guns andhis heart was in the right place. Can't say the same of Gonzalez.