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Conservatives remain loyal to Bush but question depth of his conservatism
Las Vegas Sun ^ | February.11, 2006 | WILL LESTER

Posted on 02/11/2006 12:49:16 PM PST by Reagan Man

Hardline conservatives, among President Bush's staunchest supporters, question whether he is conservative enough when it comes to government spending and growth, leaders of the movement say.

"What conservatives have realized during the last five years is that we have not elected a conservative president," said Bill Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union. "Nor do we have a conservative majority in either the House or Senate."

Conservatives gathered at a Washington hotel this weekend for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where they assess the status of their movement and what they think of government policies. President Reagan remains the champion of low-tax, small-government supporters even after Bush's re-election and the dominance of GOP lawmakers.

They are quite unhappy with Bush administration initiatives - for example, the multibillion-dollar prescription drug program and the No Child Left Behind education law - and special spending projects from Congress that have ballooned the cost and scope of the federal government.

"We are in danger of becoming the party of big government," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

Pence said he and his allies in Congress plan to make sure that trend is reversed.

"The era of big Republican government is over," Pence said, adding the word "Republican" to the memorable phrase used by President Clinton in his 1996 State of the Union address.

Many conference participants feel that limited government overrides all other issues such as gun rights, pro-life policies and conservative judges. Yet, despite their unhappiness, Bush remains popular with this group, especially for his court appointments and handling of terrorism.

"They like Bush," said David Keene, chairman of the ACU, which runs the conference. "But they are frustrated and disappointed with some things the administration has done. And the frustration is deep because government spending and growth of government are at the core of beliefs of many people here."

Keene said conservatives are starting to look ahead at future leaders, accepting that they've gotten some of what they want from Bush.

Some at the conservatives' conference measure the success of the Bush administration purely on their own specific issues. As National Rifle Association President Sandra Froman put it, "At the NRA, we're at the height of our power right now."

The campaign against terror has become the glue that binds the conservative movement, said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group.

"If the fight against terror weren't part of the political equation, the focus would be on economic policy and if the focus were on economic policy, there would be an upheaval," Bozell said.

"We're ready for a candidate to assume the Reagan mantle," he said. "Bush has done an extraordinary job on the war on terror. But on economic policy, he fiddles while Rome burns."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: acu; aphack; bush; cpac; term2
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To: ex-snook
Terrorism has gotten worse

It certainly has. The Taliban still owns Afghanistan, Hussein and his sons are still murdering and raping innocent women and children. The US and our interests around the world are subject to daily terror attacks. Iraq and Afghanistan are still staging grounds for deadenders where they can move and plot freely and with impunity. At least ten embassies have been blown up in the past 5 years. Maybe 20 or so US Navy ships. And on and on.

Of course this all happened on a planet with two purple moons and three red ones in a parallel universe.

161 posted on 02/11/2006 3:53:52 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: beyond the sea
I thought it was L. Brent Bozell III?
162 posted on 02/11/2006 4:03:33 PM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham ("The moment that someone wants to forbid caricatures, that is the moment we publish them.")
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To: FreeReign
"and spending under Reagan relative to GDP was equivalent to what we have today."

Yeah, here's the difference, We were staring down a super power not a bunch of jihadis, we head congress in the hands of the opposition party who were not friendly to the president. Welfare had not been reformed, and we suffered a recession in the early eighties that was one of our worst ever.

What's Bush's excuse? Both houses are controlled by us, we have a booming economy, and our defense spending as a percentage of GDP is much less. Dose the president know the term "Veto" or "No" ?!?

Bush has been overall a good president and in some ways a great president. However I will not call him conservative. He is the perfect example of a moderate republican.
163 posted on 02/11/2006 4:04:39 PM PST by spikeytx86 (Beware the Democratic party has been over run by CRAB PEOPLE!)
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To: Reagan Man
It's Howlin the plagiarist and Bush sycophant, whose biggest contribution to conservatism is posting on the internets primier conservative website. Period. That's it! You never post anything to do with conservatism or about conservatism.

And if we all followed Howlin and the gang, we'd have Justice Harriet Myers on the Supreme Court now, instead of Alito. Champions of Conservatism they are!

164 posted on 02/11/2006 4:07:46 PM PST by Texas Federalist (Pittsburgh Steelers - 2006 World Champions!!!!!)
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To: Reagan Man

Now lets see "Which side should I listen to: a President doing what is required within the real world beleagured on all sides for doing what is necessary to fight the deadly foes of Western Civilization (though WC is surrendering at every hand) or a bunch of dreamy idealists perhaps incapable of running a gas station?"

Gee isn't that a hard choice?


165 posted on 02/11/2006 4:12:00 PM PST by justshutupandtakeit (Public Enemy #1, the RATmedia.)
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To: jwalsh07
>>>>He showed weakness in Lebanon.

The US Marines were part of a multinational peackeeping force, that was thrown into the middle of a civil war in Beruit Lebanon. After the Marine barracks was car bombed, US intelligence was unable to determine for certain, who committed the action. Some experts in the US govt believed the responsibile party was Hezbollah, with help from either Syria or Iran. Islamic Jihad actually took credit for the bombing, but no one took that claim seriosuly. No final determination was ever reached by our government on this matter.

The Reagan administration did hatch a plan to knock off a military barracks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Defense Secretary Cap Weinberger opposed such action. Weinberger told Reagan, any attack without positive proof of who committed the Beirut action would lead to an expanded civil war, dragging the US further into the conflict and undermining Reagan's efforts to win the Cold War.

Until this day, Weinberger insists the responsible party is unknown. Reagan did order air bombing and shelling from the USS New Jersey. Soon afterwards, the Marines were pulled out for good. All in all, a smart move. Reagan knew that Beirut and all of Lebanon was an untenable situation. Besides, Reagan had bigger fish to fry.

It's easy to look back with 20/20 hindsight and say Reagan was negligent for his lack of action. Fact is, if Reagan was given proof posiitve who committed the killing of the Marines, he would have taken stronger military action then he did.

And he never attempted to move Social Security toward privatization.

From 1964 to 1980, Reagan spoke about privatizing Social Security. When Reagan took office in 1981 he quickly found out that SS was the third rail of American politics. Instead of pressing the issue of SS privatiziation with Speaker Tip O'Neill and the Democrat controlled House, Reagan took a different route. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan as chairman of a Social Security reform commission. Its job was to come up with a plan to reform Social Security and make it fiscally solvent once again. That is exactly what happened. Reagan did have succcess in reforming SS, just not with private/personal accounts.

166 posted on 02/11/2006 4:13:17 PM PST by Reagan Man (Secure our borders;punish employers who hire illegals;stop all welfare to illegals)
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To: F16Fighter; Reagan Man

that individual has twisted the meaning of that 11th commandment.
it dealt with ELECTED republicans talking about fellow ELECTED republicans.


167 posted on 02/11/2006 4:16:47 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (There's nothing "Mainstream" about the Orwellian Media!!!)
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To: Stellar Dendrite
"[The] 11th commandment...dealt with ELECTED republicans talking about fellow ELECTED republicans."

I'd still make exceptions in the case of RINOs who constantly vote against the grain.

168 posted on 02/11/2006 4:26:41 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: Stellar Dendrite; MNJohnnie
To: shhrubbery!

You know the rules. When speaking of another poster, make sure you ping that poster.

1,078 posted on 03/19/2005 7:05:24 PM EST by Lead Moderator
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169 posted on 02/11/2006 4:27:16 PM PST by Howlin (Why don't you just report the news, instead of what might be the news? - Donald Rumsfeld 1/25/2006)
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To: F16Fighter

so would i.


170 posted on 02/11/2006 4:32:08 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (There's nothing "Mainstream" about the Orwellian Media!!!)
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To: Reagan Man
Fact is, if Reagan was given proof posiitve who committed the killing of the Marines, he would have taken stronger military action then he did.

Fact is we showed weakness. And weakness before that in Iran. And weakness after that at Khobar, in Africa, after the Cole and in Mogadishu. And we paid the price.

171 posted on 02/11/2006 4:33:35 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: Texas Federalist

LMFAO, how true!!!!!


172 posted on 02/11/2006 4:35:17 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (There's nothing "Mainstream" about the Orwellian Media!!!)
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To: Reagan Man
Its job was to come up with a plan to reform Social Security and make it fiscally solvent once again. That is exactly what happened.

Really? Was the plan for temporary solvency? Because it sure the hell didn't solve the long term solvency problem. But I don't hold that against President Reagan.

Reagan did have succcess in reforming SS, just not with private/personal accounts.

Fact is President Reagan never used any political capital at all advocating for moving Social Securtiy toward private accounts. President Bush ran on it and spent considerable capital trying to advance it. These facts are not disputable. And again I don't hold that against President Reagan. But I do give President Bush kudos for going where no President has dared go before, on to the third rail.

173 posted on 02/11/2006 4:38:58 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: Stellar Dendrite

Are we back to the Presidential Infallability threads again?!


174 posted on 02/11/2006 4:45:20 PM PST by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: DTogo

your signature is zot-worthy. :)


175 posted on 02/11/2006 4:49:12 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite (There's nothing "Mainstream" about the Orwellian Media!!!)
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To: jwalsh07
>>>>Fact is we showed weakness. And weakness before that in Iran.

What weakness? The Beirut situation was handled properly. I posted the historic facts as they exist. What did you expect Reagan to do? Get us further involved in the Lebanon conflict. That would have been stupid. Did you expect Reagan to start a war over the Marine barracks bombing? Without knowing who committed the act, striking out for vengence sake would have been a very dangerous decision. Perhaps drawing the Soviets into it. This was a situation that went wrong. Reagan thought he did the right thing. Ike had sent in 10K Marines into Beirut in 1957. On the surface, this seemed to be a similiar situation. Actually, it turned out to be a different deal altogether. The Feds had no idea who committed the bombing. And what weakness in Iran are you talking about?

176 posted on 02/11/2006 4:53:39 PM PST by Reagan Man (Secure our borders;punish employers who hire illegals;stop all welfare to illegals)
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To: Reagan Man
Depends on what they mean by "remain loyal".

How much loyalty has the White House, RNC and the other (R) operational entities shown to the conservatve base (30+%)?

None.

We owe them nothing.

177 posted on 02/11/2006 4:56:13 PM PST by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: jwalsh07
>>>>Fact is President Reagan never used any political capital at all advocating for moving Social Securtiy toward private accounts.

That is simple not true. My memory must be better then yours. Reagan came into office in 1981 with private SS accounts on his agenda. Reagan had campaigned on private SS accounts in 1976 and 1980. He talked about them from 1964 onward. The Dems said, NO WAY to Reagan's privatization plan in 1981. Bush43 did a campaign style effort in early 2005 and even with a full GOP Congress on his side, the issue went nowhere.

Reagan signed off on the recommendations from the Greenspan Commission and that gave solvency to SS until about 2030. It was a 50 year plan. In fact, during this years SOTUS, Bush mentioned setting up a Greenspan style commission for SS reform. We'll see how far Bush gets.

178 posted on 02/11/2006 5:05:40 PM PST by Reagan Man (Secure our borders;punish employers who hire illegals;stop all welfare to illegals)
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To: Reagan Man
Reagan's amnesty was a citizenship amnesty. Bush's is not.

Sure. Got yourself convinced of that.

What's stated above is true. You seem not to want to admit to it.

Okay. It doesn't matter because nothing is going to be done about the immigration issue in the next three years. Nothing serious anyway. At least Reagan made a serious effort to control illegal immigration long term. The IRCA of 1986 did offer temporary to permanent resident status for illegals.

Millions of illegals were given citizenship amnesty by Reagan. They didn't have to wait on the quota line to get their green cards. What part of that don't you understand?

But its not Reagan's fault there are 10-15 million illegals in America today. That fault lies with Bush41, Clinton and Bush43. Today, PresBush supports open borders and the cheap labor it brings to his bigwig GOP donor pals. Yeah boy. LOL Pandering to the Hispanic voters is another reason Bush isn't serious about solving the immigration issue.

There were no troops on the border during Reagan's 8 years. There are no troops on the border now. Almost anybody could cross the border then -- almost anybody can cross now. You seem to be denial.

Perhaps if you didn't have your screen name you could be more objective.

179 posted on 02/11/2006 5:10:28 PM PST by FreeReign
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To: Reagan Man
What weakness?

243 dead marines. A nominally moderate democratic state left to be lorded over by Syria. And no dead islamofascists who celebrate the anniversary of that bombing to this day. That weakness.

180 posted on 02/11/2006 5:11:49 PM PST by jwalsh07
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