Posted on 10/18/2005 1:28:01 PM PDT by 45Auto
The White House appears to have been truly blindsided by the vehemently negative response from conservative intellectuals to the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. In truth, this is a revolt that has been long in the making. The surprising thing is that it has taken such a long time for it to come out into the open.
The truth that is now dawning on many movement conservatives is that George W. Bush is not one of them and never has been. They were allies for a long time, to be sure, and conservatives used Mr. Bush just as he used them. But it now appears that they are headed for divorce. And as with all divorces, the ultimate cause was not the final incident, but the buildup of grievances over a long period that one day could no longer be overlooked, contained or smoothed over.
From the conservative point of view, the list of grievances is a long one, dating back to the first days of the Bush Administration.
• One of President Bush’s first actions in office was a vast expansion of education spending with little real reform in return. To conservatives, it has always looked like a transparent effort to buy off the so-called soccer moms. But rather than buy peace with the education lobby, it has simply led to continuous calls for still more education spending, despite the paucity of evidence correlating spending with achievement.
• Almost all conservatives view campaign finance reform as a blatantly unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment, the Supreme Court’s endorsement notwithstanding. Now it may end up being used to suppress blogs and other new media that have been critical for conservatives in breaking the liberal monopoly of the mainstream press.
• It is the rare conservative who has a kind word for the Bush immigration policy. Most conservatives think that he has been woefully weak on protecting our borders. Among the grassroots of the Republican Party there is active hostility to administration plans to allow illegal immigrants to have guest worker status. Most see this as a form of amnesty that will further encourage illegal immigration.
• Even leaving aside national defense and homeland security, government spending has exploded during the Bush years. Although the vast proliferation of pork barrel spending, which President Bush steadfastly refuses to veto, has gotten most of the attention, far more worrisome has been the expansion of entitlements, especially the extraordinarily ill-conceived Medicare drug benefit. In future years, Republicans will rue the day they passed this legislation, because they are eventually going to have to cut it, thereby losing all the political benefits they thought they would get among the elderly.
• Government regulation got a big boost from passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, which Republicans rushed through Congress to deflect criticism over the Enron scandal. But the fact is that nothing in the legislation would have prevented Enron’s financial abuses—a fact proven by a new scandal involving stock broker Refco, which appears to have engaged in Enron-style financial shenanigans that are now being investigated by authorities.
I could go on, but the point is that George W. Bush has never demonstrated any interest in shrinking the size of government. And on many occasions, he has increased government significantly. Yet if there is anything that defines conservatism in America, it is hostility to government expansion. The idea of big government conservatism, a term often used to describe Mr. Bush’s philosophy, is a contradiction in terms.
Conservative intellectuals have known this for a long time, but looked the other way for various reasons. Some thought the war on terror trumped every other issue. If a few billion dollars had to be wasted to buy the votes needed to win the war, then so be it, many conservatives have argued. Others say that Bush never ran as a conservative in the first place, so there is no betrayal here, only a failure by conservatives to see what he has been all along. Of course, this doesn’t say much for the conservative movement. At best conservatives were naïve about Bush; at worst, they sold-out much of what they claim to believe in.
The Miers nomination has led to some long overdue soul-searching among conservative intellectuals. For many, the hope of finally turning around the judiciary was worth putting up with all the big government stuff. Thus Bush’s pick of a patently unqualified crony for a critical position on the Supreme Court was the final straw.
Had George W. Bush demonstrated more fealty to conservative principles over the last five years, he might have gotten a pass on Miers. But coming on top of all the big government initiatives he has supported, few in the conservative movement are inclined to give him the benefit of a doubt any longer.
So who did Bartlett vote for?
GEORGE BUSH IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE!
The Miers nomination looks dead, mainly because the left desires to defeat Bush at anything, and secondly, the right seems to be obsessed about slapping down Bush over Miers for past wrongs suffered.
IMO the divorce is between the social and religious Conservatives and the "neo-cons"
George W. Bush is not running for re-election. Before they destry the GOP they should keep that in mind.
Spot on observations that most Bush-Bots would dispute with their last dying breath and 8x11 glossy of Dubya tucked close to their heart.
Well alot of it is quite factual. And from the date he turned over the writing of the education reform to ** TEDDY KENNEDY **, I knew we were in trouble relative to conservatism in government. The whole pitch about "a new tone in Washington" was quite true, although we did not really know what it really meant, until 2004.
For many, the hope of finally turning around the judiciary was worth putting up with all the big government stuff. Thus Bush’s pick of a patently unqualified crony for a critical position on the Supreme Court was the final straw.
I doubt it unless something is uncovered about her. There are very few conservative Senators when it comes down to it.
No, the neo-cons also are aghast at Miers nomination. Look at Frum and Kristol.
Bartlett has been a Bush supporter. But what he says is right on target. I for one am relieved that conservatives are starting to stand up and fight for their principles. It's about darn time. In the big picture, this is really great! The left pushes Bush around and the right lets him walk all over them. Well no more. As long as we stay focused, this can be a really good development.
For those Conservatives who care about the safety and security of Israel- or even just hate the hypocrisy of fighting terror one place while supporting it against Israel- Bush's policies are today entirely pro- "Palestinian".
I concur.
He is a lot more conservative than John Kerry.
1) So that her presentation at the hearings does not reveal how badly they over-reacted and cause a loss of esteem among reasonable conservatives,
and 2) so it is not shown which Senators their efforts align with on the final vote.
Same goes for the Hastert and Frist led Congress.
Public financing of PBS and the NEA stand as the poster children of out of control wasteful spending. Both are alive and well in a GOP dominated Executive and Legislative branch.
Not based on his spending bills he is not.
I stand beside President George W. Bush for 13 years.. and still standing!
Love ya W ~
Nails it. I agree with everything, except for the "Sarbanes-Oxley bill", but only because I know nothing about it. President Bush has never been a "conservative", and he's been proving it for almost 5 years.
IMO the divorce is between the social and religious Conservatives and the "neo-cons"
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