Posted on 07/11/2004 10:48:58 AM PDT by Military Chick
Some Key Conservatives Uneasy About Bush
SCOTT LINDLAW Associated Press
WASHINGTON - When an influential group of conservatives gathers in downtown Washington each week, they often get a political pep talk from a senior Bush administration official or campaign aide. They don't expect a fellow Republican to deliver a blistering critique of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war.
But nearly 150 conservatives listened in silence recently as a veteran of the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations ticked off a litany of missteps in Iraq by the Bush White House.
"This war is not going well," said Stefan Halper, a deputy assistant secretary of state under President Reagan.
"It's costing us a lot of money, isolating us from our allies and friends," said Halper, who gave $1,000 to George W. Bush's campaign and more than $83,000 to other GOP causes in 2000. "This is not the cakewalk the neoconservatives predicted. We were not greeted with flowers in the streets."
Conservatives, the backbone of Bush's political base, are increasingly uneasy about the Iraq conflict and the steady drumbeat of violence in postwar Iraq, Halper and some of his fellow Republicans say. The conservatives' anxiety was fueled by the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal and has not abated with the transfer of political power to the interim Iraqi government.
Some Republicans fear angry conservatives will stay home in November, undercutting Bush's re-election bid.
"I don't think there's any question that there is growing restiveness in the Republican base about this war," said Halper, the co-author of a new book, "America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order."
Some Republicans dismiss the rift as little more than an inside-the-Beltway spat among rival factions of the GOP intelligentsia. Indeed, conservatives nationwide are still firmly behind Bush. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 97 percent of conservative Republicans favored Bush over Kerry.
But anger is simmering among some conservatives.
"I am bitterly disappointed in his actions with this war. It is a total travesty," said Tom Hutchinson, 69, a self-described conservative from Sturgeon, Mo., who posted yard signs and staffed campaign phone banks for the Republican in 2000. Hutchinson said he did not believe the administration's stated rationales for the war, in particular the argument that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Hutchinson, a retired businessman and former college professor, said his unease with Iraq may lead him to do something he has not done since 1956: avoid the voting booth in a presidential election.
Jack Walters, 59, a self-described "classical conservative" from Columbia, Mo., said he hadn't decided which candidate to vote for.
"Having been through Vietnam, I thought no, never again," Walters said. "But here comes the same thing again, and I'm old enough to recognize the lame reasons given for going into Iraq, and they made me ill."
The tension has been building in official Washington, where conservative members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees have pressed the administration for answers on combat operations; disagreed with the Pentagon on troop levels; and expressed frustration with an administration they feel has shown them disdain by withholding information.
Chief political adviser Karl Rove's formula for re-election is primarily to push Bush's conservative base to the polls.
Another administration official involved in Bush's re-election effort has voiced concern that angry conservatives will sit out the election.
But Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's chief strategist, described the fear of losing conservative support as "just ludicrous."
Bush is "as strong among conservative Republicans as any Republican president has been" - higher than President Reagan's approval among conservatives during his re-election campaign of 1984, Dowd said.
Yet, Halper said his critical review on the administration's performance on Iraq last week was met with expressions of support in the conservatives' weekly meeting, which is closed to journalists.
The marquee speaker sent by the administration was Eric Ciliberti, who spent several weeks in Iraq this year and told the audience of broad progress being made there.
Ciliberti complained to the group that the news media was not reporting the positive developments out of Iraq. Ciliberti did not return several calls late in the past week from a reporter seeking his account.
Yes, Columbia is in Boone County.
If you think living in the middle of the stinkin' desert in a community with more than it's fair share of illegal immigrants, prostitutes and homeless drunks/drug addicts is an improvement of my standard of living, you're sadly mistaken. And I can barely afford A/C as it is, that's why I use an evaporative "swamp" cooler to reduce my electric bill.
ex-State Department. Enough said. They're employed by US taxpayers but they actually work for the approval of every screwball nation on the planet.
I've heard them. You've obviously heard them. W and Rove have heard them, but their importance pales in comparison to the big picture, imho.
Doesn't the saying go, keep your loved ones close and your enemies closer?
Clearly, this article is a "people (who may or may not be nuts, but we'll never know from the article) disagree with Bush" hyperbole.
Clearly, this article is a "people (who may or may not be nuts, but we'll never know from the article) disagree with Bush" hyperbole.
"If they are uneasy with Bush, are they going to be less uneasy with Liberal #1 (Kerry) and Liberal #4 (Edwards). If so, they are not conservatives in the faintest sense of the word."
Exactly. I agree completely and mention the same myself, and get bashed for it every time, though it's true.
No real conservative could possibly prefer Kerry to Bush.
How about government growth, budget deficit, tax increases for the future generations, job exporting PNTR, mission creep in Iraq and campaigning for Specter. But Kerry is no better.
It doesn't matter why "conservatives" are "angry" with Bush.
Bottom line, if you don't vote for Bush you are going to get Kerry. Is that what "conservatives" want?
Anyone preferring Kerry, no matter what their stated reason, is NO CONSERVATIVE. PERIOD.
If you don't get out and vote for Bush, you ARE effectively voting for Kerry.
In what way? As far as I am concerned he is more interested in the middle than his base.
Unfortunately there are tooooo many people who think that war should be quick, easy, and bloodless. I really believe that history will show that depite the negative press and the hardships that the U.S. seems to have to endure here, working to stabilize the middle east and democratize it will have long lasting postive effects for the entire world. Either that will happen, or the world will be brought to the brink of armageddon.
You're as screwed up on political issues as you are in belonging to an excommunicated religious sect.
The patricians, the plebeians/productive workers and the blood suckers.
The Republicans are made up of Patricians and Plebeians; The Democrats of Patricians and Blood Suckers.
Our Patrician rulers divide their loyalties between their party and their class. This means no party fully represents my interests.
Both Kerry and Bush are Patricians.
As a mental exercise I developed the following percentages.
Bush is 30% beneficial to me 35% Harmful and 35% indifferent
Kerry is 15% beneficial to me 50% harmful and 35 % indifferent
Although I will vote for and support Pres. Bush, I will not delude myself into believing he is my friend.
Bush has been the most anti-abortion president in the history of this country, and that includes Ronald Reagan.
He's trying to put strict constructionists on the court, but can't do it without more conservative senators.
On 4, you just don't pay attention if you think Bush is "foot dragging" on gay marriage.
Ignoring the world court, or refusing to participate in UN peacekeeping missions, is Bush's response to the world court.
I don't see what your problem with him is based on these four issues.
The Repbublicans already have control of the senate.
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