[Grut]

A brilliant piece and sadly accurate; it will go nowhere.

[Brilliant]

Bush is farther to the left on spending than Bill Clinton was during his Presidency. And whoever succeeds Bush will be even farther to the left. If it's a Democrat, I'm not sure the Union will survive. We may have our own little 21st Century Boston Tea Party.

[HarleyLady27]

First of all I would ask if it is important to spend the money in rebuilding the gulf coast....answer to that is YES with hands down.

Next I would ask, is all the aid to china, france, germany, russia, and the rest of the world worth it and my answer to that is NO with hands down...

So that is how I justify helping our American people BEFORE we help the ungrateful world....

[msnimje]

First, I would like to ask that all the fiscal conservatives not get PHYSICALLY mad at me for this statement.
Please refrain from telling me that you feel you should not have to pay for anything that does not directly affect your life, you have made that perfectly clear and I believe it is a valid position and not at all the subject of this post.

I would like to make a simple observation about semantics.

The President said we will do whatever it takes to rebuild the infrastructure of New Orleans.
He did NOT say, "We will give you whatever you want."
In choosing his words the way he did, he made the Fed's spending "self-limiting" - once the infrastructure is built, the Fed's obligation ends.

I do not think he meant to imply it will be a blank check.

[uncbob]

Well that speech back in 2000 about "Compassionate Conservatism "and "On the Backs Of the Poor " told you all you needed to know about Bush's social affairs position

[TexCon]

Awesome point! Spend, spend, and spend. If taxes are being cut, then the government is cutting other programs to pay for the aid to Katrina (soon Rita too) and the Iraq war right? No! Where's the conservatism in that? Whatever happened to simply protecting our borders, building a national defense, and providing truly free enterprise? Bush has tried to appear as a compassionate conservative on so many situations, but his hopeless attempts have molded into what seems to be inexpedient liberalism. I witnessed the night when McCain stood up in the Senate and went off on the highway bill's unacceptable pork. You could just see Murkowski, acting as presiding officer, squirming in her seat while piercing McCain with a gaze of disdain and greed, and Stevens, boasting in his chair as the Pro Tempore, exuding a slight smirk and chuckle as he hears McCain cite that most of the pork is going directly to his state. The pork is superfluous and must be stopped somehow!

[Ohioan]

The great Bush spending spree is about an arguably shrewd but ultimately unhelpful reading of history, domestic politics, Iraq and, I believe, vanity.

Peggy's once sharp analytic abilities are certainly slipping. There is nothing arguably shrewd about destroying any credibility, you ever had. Those of us, who in our times--mine many years back--fought the Leftist Collegiate establishments, with success, can well attest what use the Leftist Collegiate establishments are going to make of Mr. Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism," over the next generation. It will be an Albatross around the necks of the Campus Conservatives.

No, it is not shrewd politics. Nor, of course, as Peggy recognizes, is it shrewd sociology, economics or anything else. The Republicans in Congress who understand these things, and care about the future of the Party, had better find ways to distance themselves from these policies--and yesterday is not a whit too soon.

William Flax

[Buck W.]

Bridge to Nowhere: Is that a SUNY Stony Brook reference?

[jec41]

Federal Assistance
In the event of a Presidential declared disaster, the Federal Emergency Management
... Seventy five percent of the costs are funded by Federal Emergency ...

By law the government is responsible for 75% of the cost of any federal declared disaster so I really don't see how this can be blamed on Bush.

[wildcatf4f3]

can't we donate the poor and the blacks to some other country---if you can think of one that will take them that is--- hey their welfare checks would make them rich in Zimbabwe

[XpandTheEkonomy]

Bush has abandoned law & order and fiscal restraint. It seems a strange way for a conservative to boost his ratings.

I can't help but think that the country would've cheered a full frontal attack on the race hustlers. Though Hispanics are now a larger minority than blacks the racial angle polling from the MSM was strictly Black vs White views. Wha?

Anyway whites overwhelmingly dismiss the racial angle. Yet Bush comes out as a racial apologist. It's pathetic and out of touch with his base. And actually the populace as a whole.

What a waste. You can't buy good race relations, Chief.

[davidtalker]

Peggy Noonan gets it. You gotta decide if you are a Conservative or a Republican. Way to put it Peggy.

[cynicom]

From the opening bell, Bush and Kennedy became buds on education and the spending race was on.

[jordan8]

But conservatives also understood "compassionate conservatism" to be a form of the philosophy that is serious about the higher effectiveness of faith-based approaches to healing poverty

I always thought it meant liberal about everything except big business.