Posted on 01/31/2004 12:41:27 PM PST by jimkress
Had dinner with an old friend last night, a long-time Republican political operative who – in 1981 – talked me into taking a sabbatical from journalism and going to Washington as a press secretary to Congressman Paul Findley.
He’s been a Republican all his life. Grew up in a GOP family. Served more than one term as a county chairman as well as a Republican National Committeeman.
So it surprised me when he opened the dinner table conversation with: “I’m not going to vote for George W. Bush in November. I may vote for John Kerry if he’s the Democratic nominee.”
Strange things can happen in this world. Joe Gibbs can come out of retirement to coach the Washington Redskins one more time. Hell, the Carolina Panthers might even win the Super Bowl. But when a lifelong Republican tells me he might vote for John Kerry, I wait for a voice to start saying “you’re entering another dimension…next stop – The Twilight Zone.”
“I’m a Republican because I believe in less government, of letting states make the decisions that affect our lives,” he said. “I believe in a balanced budget. But my party no longer believes in any of these things. I can’t be a part of what I think is destroying this country.”
His comments echo what I have been hearing after three weeks on the campaign trail. Republicans are fed up with an administration that has created the largest federal bureaucracy ever, with record deficits and with increasing federal power and control over our lives.
But they’re not just fed up with George W. Bush, they’re fed up with a Republican-controlled Congress that passed the largest, most pork-laden transportation bill in history, that abandoned its promise to impose term limits and that broke most of the promises of the 1994 “Contract With America” that gave them control of Capitol Hill in the first place.
My friend’s theory: “You know the old bromide that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Well, my party has taken it step further. Absolute power leads to madness. It makes me, a Republican, long for Democrats back in control. That is pure madness but I can’t help it.”
I’ve been around politics as a journalist or an operative for nearly 40 years and the dissension within the GOP is the worst I’ve ever seen. At a Republican caucus earlier this week, California Republican Congressman Chris Cox headed a group of conservative members who told Speaker of the House Denny Hastert that a GOP Congress was being undermined by Bush's actions in the White House. One member reportedly said a GOP Congress could deal more effectively with a Democrat in the White House than they can with Bush.
“At least we know what to expect from a Democratic President,” he said.
You really haven't a clue as to how politics or life works, do you?
I have always been very sanguine about President Bush and his plans and the future of the Country, etc., etc. Check my previous posts and you'll see that it's true. But I'm afraid to say that I'm beginning to see it as you do. I understand that President Bush wants to be re-elected, and I know that compromises are inevitable but this latest fiaso w/Dr. Kay and the WMD have me reeling.
We lost 500+ boys, and now their families have to contemplate the idea that we didn't really have to go Iraq when we did. I'm not arguing that our military didn't do a wonderful thing by removing Hussein, but that was not the stated reason for going in. I'm even more stunned that our Intelligence Service is as incompetent as it seems to be right now.
I've said this before on other threads and don't really want to be repetitve, but if we were wrong about who has WMD it's very likely were wrong about who doesn't. I had quite a bit of faith in President Bush, and even supported him in policies I didn't agree with because compromise is unavoidable, but he has crossed a line and I don't think that can be denied. My faith in him as the sole person who can protect us against terrorist attacks is fading fast, and I'm none too happy about it.
Conservatives were not to blame for Bush I losing in 1992. Bush was responsible for losing in 1992. He broke campaign promises and the citizens of the respective states held him accountable. By your argument, we should continue to vote time and time again for someone we disagree with just because he's 'our' guy. If Bush II loses in 2004, it will not be the fault of the conservatives that he upset with his liberal policies. It will ultimately be the fault of those who advised Bush that he could act without repercussion
Your responses would be viewed in a better light if you didn't flat out lie.
He has said repeatedly that he is NOT in favor of ANY kind of blanket amnesty.
If you think for one minute that the families of those boys who perished aren't thinking about what I voiced then you don't know much about the loss of loved one. So if you want to discuss this in a civil manner then I'm available, but if you want to preach platitudes I'm not your girl.
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