Concerned Republicans Ask: Is Bush Conservative Enough?

The New York Times ^ | January 25, 2004 | DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

[Delta-Tango]

ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 24 — To many people, President Bush — tax-cutter, born-again Christian, invader of Iraq — is the face of American conservatism. But here at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, many of the assembled are questioning whether he is conservative enough.

Conservatives complain about the administration's spending on Medicare and education and its proposed spending on space exploration, its expansion of law enforcement powers to fight terrorism and its proposed guest-worker program for immigrants.

To underscore the discontent, the American Conservative Union, which organizes the conference, held a dinner in honor of Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted against the president's Medicare bill. The conference called them fiscal heroes. The topic of one panel discussion was "G.O.P. Success: Is It Destroying the Conservative Movement?" and another debated whether the administration's antiterrorism efforts were endangering people's rights to privacy and freedom. The keynote address was delivered by a conservative Democrat, Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, in part to make sure the administration did not take conservatives for granted, said David A. Keene, chairman of the union.

"There are troubling signs that the ship of conservative governance is off-course," Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, said in the opening address.

Too many "big-government Republicans" have come to see government as a solution instead of the problem itself, Mr. Pence said.

[Delta-Tango]

Questions that need to be asked.

[BenLurkin]

I'll stick my neck out and say: Overall, Bush is not a Conservative.

[FirstPrinciple]

If you post a link to NYTimes, you have to supply an username and password as well.

[BlkConserv]

Is Dean, Hillary, Kerry, etc. conservative enough?

Typical divide-and-conquer tactics from the Gray Lady.

[ex-snook]

Duplicate topic

[elrichbo]

Bush may not be as conservative as Reagan and though I don't totally agree on everything he does I am more afraid of having a liberal in the white house! go Bush!