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At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic
washingtonpost.com ^ | Wednesday, March 8, 2006 | Dana Milbank

Posted on 03/08/2006 7:08:13 AM PST by beeler

If the ancient political wisdom is correct that a charge unanswered is a charge agreed to, the Bush White House pleaded guilty yesterday at the Cato Institute to some extraordinary allegations.

"We did ask a few members of the Bush economic team to come," explained David Boaz, the think tank's executive vice president, as he moderated a discussion between two prominent conservatives about President Bush. "We didn't get that."

Now why would the administration pass up such an invitation?

Well, it could have been because of the first speaker, former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett. Author of the new book "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," Bartlett called the administration "unconscionable," "irresponsible," "vindictive" and "inept."

It might also have had something to do with speaker No. 2, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan. Author of the forthcoming "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back," Sullivan called Bush "reckless" and "a socialist," and accused him of betraying "almost every principle conservatism has ever stood for."

Nor was moderator Boaz a voice of moderation. He blamed Bush for "a 48 percent increase in spending in just six years," a "federalization of public schools" and "the biggest entitlement since LBJ."

True, the small-government libertarians represented by Cato have always been the odd men out of the Bush coalition. But the standing-room-only forum yesterday, where just a single questioner offered even a tepid defense of the president, underscored some deep disillusionment among conservatives over Bush's big-spending answer to Medicare and Hurricane Katrina, his vast claims of executive power, and his handling of postwar Iraq.

Bartlett, who lost his job at the free-market National Center for Policy Analysis because of his book, said that if conservatives were honest, more would join his complaint.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bartlett; betrayal; bush; cato; christiansocialist; danamilbank; gop; lbjrepublican; libertarians; presidentbush; sullivan; washingtonpost
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To: Soul Seeker

I think you're confusing libertarians with Libertarians. Sullivan is indeed an idiot just as Bush is not conservative.


61 posted on 03/08/2006 8:37:16 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: conserv13

Yes, and the Liberals claim to be for both as well.

Sullivan endorsed kerry in the presidential election.

Explain that away.


62 posted on 03/08/2006 8:42:09 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: Paul Ross
You on the other hand are not getting past the 80's and that why your faction of conservatism has lost and gone no where. You need to deal with the reality.
63 posted on 03/08/2006 8:47:00 AM PST by jveritas (Hate can never win elections.)
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To: beeler

No, I am not.

A "libertarian" whether small "l" or big "L" is not a "Conservative" by definition. Please do not attempt to argue the labels are interchangable, if that were true two distinct labels wouldn't exist.

Agreed on Sullivan.

As for the President? He's conservative on some issues, not so on others. Actually I've always maintained he doesn't fit an ideological sterotype even though folks today find it convenient to designate others as Liberal or conservative. Unlike moderates, he doesn't define label because he lacks willingness to take a position. Rather he just takes it issue by issue which results in a grey area of strong beliefs no one can adequately attribute a label to. Perhaps "Independent" which is sort of "blah" in meaning.


64 posted on 03/08/2006 8:48:47 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: Soul Seeker
I really don't care what they "seem" to you.

Conservative minded people support conservative ideals no matter what some think of their political lable. Those who blindly support labels only allow the big government socialists the oportunity to destroy America.

65 posted on 03/08/2006 8:51:03 AM PST by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: eskimo

If you've been reduced to meaningless propaganda the point was made.


66 posted on 03/08/2006 8:54:24 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: beeler
At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic

OH - I thought this was about FreeRepublic.

67 posted on 03/08/2006 8:55:34 AM PST by HairOfTheDog (Hobbit Hole knives for soldiers! www.freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net)
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To: Soul Seeker
Sullivan endorsed kerry in the presidential election. Explain that away.

Yeah, that is troubling. Here is a weak attempt: If Bush got elected it would set conservativsm back further, and if Kerry got elected we'd have 4 years of Kerry then elect a true conservative.

68 posted on 03/08/2006 8:56:07 AM PST by conserv13
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To: eskimo

LIBERTARIANS are not conservative...
I'm no Libertarian but they seem to me now to be much more conservative than the GOP.

Libertarians believe in open borders, legalized drugs, and no military...do you?


69 posted on 03/08/2006 9:04:35 AM PST by kaktuskid
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To: Soul Seeker
If you've been reduced to meaningless propaganda the point was made.

Meaningless propaganda is the tool of the label supporters, not the supporters of conservative ideals.

70 posted on 03/08/2006 9:04:53 AM PST by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: conserv13

You are correct.

That is weak.

Following YOUR logic, defeating '41 would have produced a True conservative. We got Dole. Following your logic, allowing Clinton's re-election paved the way for the true conservative-Bush 43.

Try Again.


71 posted on 03/08/2006 9:05:42 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: conserv13

Sullivan endorsed kerry in the presidential election. Explain that away.
Yeah, that is troubling. Here is a weak attempt: If Bush got elected it would set conservativsm back further, and if Kerry got elected we'd have 4 years of Kerry then elect a true conservative.

And what did 8 years of Clintoon give us?(9-11,Osama,Chinese ports)


72 posted on 03/08/2006 9:06:05 AM PST by kaktuskid
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To: eskimo
By the time silly GOP apologists get done discarding every conservative organization that critizes the presently ridiculous party line, the DU might well be the largest supporter of the liberal infested GOP.

By the time the foolish bashbots get finished running this administration into the ground, there won't be a conservative movement left that amounts to anything.

73 posted on 03/08/2006 9:06:22 AM PST by A.Hun (Common sense is no longer common.)
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To: Soul Seeker

I don't believe the labels are interchangable, but it is possible to be both a libertarian and a conservative.


74 posted on 03/08/2006 9:07:03 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: A.Hun
DU thinks that Bush's vast expansion of the federal government is the good thing he did.
75 posted on 03/08/2006 9:09:12 AM PST by steve-b (A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom)
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To: Soul Seeker

Exactly. And since I'm old enough to remember the Reagan years, defeating Reagan would have given a REAL conservative like Goldwater another chance. ; ).


76 posted on 03/08/2006 9:12:33 AM PST by pollyannaish
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To: A.Hun
So you're blaming Bush's socialist tendencies on the people on the right who are holding him accountable? I believe people are responsible for their own actions, including the president. Bush is not part of the conservative movement. If it weren't for the people "running this administration into the ground" Harriet Miers would be on the supreme court.
77 posted on 03/08/2006 9:12:58 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: dirtboy

The basic problem is that the people in charge of the GOP have given the personality cult of Dubya priority over actual small-government conservative principles.


78 posted on 03/08/2006 9:13:53 AM PST by steve-b (A desire not to butt into other people's business is eighty percent of all human wisdom)
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To: A.Hun
By the time the foolish bashbots get finished running this administration into the ground, there won't be a conservative movement left that amounts to anything.

If you suggest that this administration is a "conservative movement" then we will have lost nothing.

79 posted on 03/08/2006 9:25:53 AM PST by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: steve-b

There has been no vast expansion of the government under George Bush.

Spending for the Federal government is right in the average of the last forty years as a percent of GDP.

You need a different argument, one that is true.

http://www.cbo.gov/budget/historical.pdf


80 posted on 03/08/2006 9:29:27 AM PST by A.Hun (Common sense is no longer common.)
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