Posted on 02/13/2006 9:50:57 AM PST by presidio9
What happens if you're a Republican commentator and you write a book critical of President George W. Bush that gets you fired from your job at a conservative think tank?
For starters, no other conservative institution rushes in with an offer for your superb analytical skills.
"Nobody will touch me," said Bruce Bartlett, the author of the forthcoming "Impostor: Why George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." He added, "I think I'm just kind of radioactive at the moment."
Bartlett, a domestic policy aide at the White House in the Reagan administration and a deputy assistant Treasury secretary under the first President Bush, talked last week at his suburban Washington home about his dismissal, his book and a growing disquiet among conservatives about Bush.
Although "Impostor" is flamboyant in its anti-Bush sentiments - on the first page Bartlett calls Bush a "pretend conservative" and compares him to Richard M. Nixon, "a man who used the right to pursue his agenda" - its basic message reflects the frustration
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Flamboyant? It sounds to me as though the author has another agenda, besides the economy.
Where was Bruce Bartlett when our President was campaigning? He never made himself out to be anything other than who he is. Some people wanted to believe something else and that's too bad.
It's reasonable to disagree with him on policies, but it's not reasonable to pretend that he didn't campaign on what he's doing.
It seems like Bruce forgot Reagan's 11th commandment. "Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican."
Not sure what this guy's agenda is. Bush was pretty conservative at the start of his first term on a lot of divisive issues, including social security. No one's ever confused W for Reagan. But he's had to rely upon an incredibly lazy Senate to get anything done, a senate that holds the war on terror hostage to every domestic issue.
I would also point out that I am a Bushbot, so naturally I would vote for the President again in a heartbeat as his understanding of security is second to none.
And he's delivered on tax cuts. And he went to the mat for John Bolton, Charles Pickering etc.
I look forward to reading Fred Barnes's book.
It is an outright attack.
Why is this an attack? It sounds like valid criticism. You know, criticism, the things people say when those they criticise make blunders. Blunders like saying you are conservative, then spending on liberal issues, at a pace unseen in history.
A Commandment which is thrown out the window when Republicans abandon republicanism, which they have. I hope the Republicans suffer huge defeats in the House/Senate in 2006!
Be honest with yourself though. If a liberal President had done some of the things Bush has done and pushed some of the same policies you'd be livid.
Ballsy but I can't see it as good career move unless he intends to go all the way over to the other side, a la David Brock.
There's a difference between disagreeing and attacking. It's possible to disagree with the President (which I do, on a LOT of domestic issues) and come off not sounding like a snarling yapping attack dog. It sounds like Bartlett went a little over the top in his book.
And, yes, it sounds like Reagan's Eleventh Commandment is falling by the wayside. Again, you can disagree with someone without "speaking ill" of them.
}:-)4
He keeps us secure
He went to give us tax cuts and will do it again
He repealed his father's tax increases
He is going after the rate of growth on entitlements
He went to the mat for John Bolton
He also went for everything he campaigned on.
If Bartlett told himself that W was a traditional conservative then you're right, it's not true.
But there is nothing conventional about this President. And he did tell us what he would do, some folk just didn't want to pay much mind to it.
You'd rather have more Nancy Pelosi's ?
...Some people wanted to believe something else and that's too bad...
Actually, we were flooded by people trying to convince us all Bush was something that he was not.
I didn't want to believe but allowed myself to be led along. I have since stopped believing and stopped allowing myself to be led.
A tax cut is liberal?
A successful GWOT is liberal?
Conservative justices are liberal?
He isn't you, and I am sure that you would propose things that I would like. But he's delivered what no one else could.
Could I trust you? Maybe. But he won me over. I trust what he says. And I can expect that he will do his best to deliver what he says.
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