Americans put a party with no core, unwavering, non-negotiable principles in charge.
What went wrong ? President Bush thought veto was a mafia hit man.
WHAT went wrong?!!! Just one word....RINOS!!
People will read ......
Comprehension is another matter....
Dear Jay. How was your coma? Your little "essay" is sweet precisely because it is so amusing.
Congress abandoned itself in the year past. Everything imaginable except for unity happened this past year.
Most experienced observers feel that there is really nothing left except leftist thinking in what remains of the former Demoscats.
Amnesty.
Better question is. What's been wrong?
Both the President and the GOP controlled Congress have swept aside any notion of advancing a conservative agenda.
If you don't punish people for crossing you on important issues, they will continue to cross you.
Also, it was a mistake to start off with Social Security. Sure, it needs to be fixed, but there were other more important issues to use his muscle on first.
The problem is due to a lot of RINOs.
The fact is that RINOs will continue to be a pain, unless they are sent a messege that they will be held accountable by Republicans for their Democratesque votes.
Another huge problem is the fact that the Senate Republican leadership is inept at putting RINOs in line. As well, the antidemocratic filibuster is a huge problem for advancing business in the Senate.
"What went wrong"
1. RINO's showed their true colours.
2. The stupid incompetant elected officials in LA that wouldn't take the responsibility and act when Katrina hit.
3. The lying MSM traitors.
4. The brickwall President Bush has to climb everyday and be on the defense all the time instead of being able to surge forward with things that really matter because the idiots on the left don't know how to act like adults and are in a state of 'Stuck on Stupid' because of the 2000 and 2004 election results and would rather see the country fail at everything :
http://media1.streamtoyou.com/rnc/0519RNCNo-1.wmv
Close, but misses the point. To create a consensus in Congress, the president must first create a movement towards consensus amongst a large segment of the voters. To do that he must prepare and present a careful, well laid out plan to the people and then work dilligently to see that the consensus that he wants amongst voters takes root.
Bush didn't make permanent tax cuts his top domestic priority for the new term. If he had pushed hard for it, he'd have been able to rally his entire base, from the social conservatives to the libertarians to even many of the McCain/Schwarzenegger/Romney-type RINOs. We would have been united, we would have prevailed, and that would have started the term on the right foot.
There's still time, actually.
And perhaps this column is junk.
Is the author really trying to sell that a President that came into office with a contested 2000 election and a Congress that flipped control to Dems with Jeffords Jumped had more of a mandate for, example, tax cuts then the first popular majority win Bush gained in 2004 dragging across a Majority of 55 Senators? remember the President DID get tax cuts, his first package, before 9-11 so the author can't try to use that as an excuse.
I don't have kind words to say about this theory.
The public has a consensus, a majority consensus, on many oF these issues. Whether it be Tax cuts, Patriot Act, Judges... Elections have proven this repeatedly. Daschle wasn't tossed from office because Thune was more attractive. Salazar didn't lie saying he wouldn't support filibusters to win election without reason and conveniently change his mind afterwards. Liberals do not mask their stance on taxes eithout cause in elections. Democrats are not backtracking on Reid's statement he killed the Patriot Act by stating "of course they want to continue it" because we don't have a big majority in agreement out in the country.
The PROBLEM is that the Senators in Congress do not feel accountable to the people except when they come every six years seeking re-election and lie about what they've done or will do. You need only listen to the Senators themselves instead of creating theories out of thin air. "Civility of the Senate". Heard that phrase? They consider their chambers to be of more importance than the electorate or Constitution. That is the problem. Their damn pretentious airs and kiss ups to the Liberal establishment in Washington.
Compounding the problem are Republicans without spine that could turn around and use their tricks against them, yet won't. They won't punish with committee assignments. They won't withdraw election funding. They won't even filibuster Liberal objectives to force a conservative compromise. If it's good for Dems/RINO's, why not us then? BTW, I've speaking legislatively NOT Judicially.
Pence with his minority forced cuts in spending rate in the House. When have the Republican Senators taken their minority and jammed something down the RINO's and Dems throats? Never.
Compounding that problem the President spent too much time reaching out to his enemies, and later in the year, going silent on PR, and this weakened him. he's reversed coarse, and he's reaping dividends by learning from that mistake.
The House I'm still furious with over ANWR, but they did start to correct themselves with Pence's spending proposal and the votes forcing the Libs on record over Iraq. As well as Sensenbrennar ripping Congress and only allowing a 5 week extention of the Patriot Act because they couldn't do their damn jobs.
The Senate, however, is still the bloody mess it was before. And unlike the Prez and House, shows no sign of getting it or righting itself. And the blame doesn't lie on the President by and large, nor on the American people has the column tries to pass the buck. It lies mostly on the backs of our own House of Lords.
The Democrats effectively got DeLay out as the House Majority. DeLay, as you may recall, was very effective in getting the bills thru the House. Right now, the game is to keep DeLay from being elected as the House Majority Leader for the next session.. So far they're sueding.
As for the Senate, we have too many RINOS as the above Freepers pointed out. What we can do to help is the elect our kind of people to the Senate.
Bush may want to do a lot of things but he can't do anything without the Congress!