Posted on 03/16/2006 11:56:08 PM PST by EternalVigilance
President Bush's troubles with congressional Republicans, which erupted during the backlash to the Dubai seaport deal, are rooted in policy frustrations and personal resentments that GOP lawmakers say stretch back to the opening days of the administration.
For years, the Bush White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seemed like one of the most unified teams Washington had ever seen, passing most of Bush's agenda with little dissent. Privately, however, many lawmakers felt underappreciated, ignored and sometimes bullied by what they regarded as a White House intent on running government with little input from them.
Often it was to pass items -- an expanded federal role in education under the No Child Left Behind law and an expensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare -- that left conservatives deeply uneasy. What Bush is facing now, beyond just election-year jitters by legislators eyeing his depressed approval ratings, is a rebellion that has been brewing since the days when he looked invincible, say many lawmakers and strategists.
Newly unleashed grievances could signal even bigger problems for Bush's last two years in office, as he would be forced to abandon a governing strategy that until recently counted on solid support from congressional Republicans.
*snip*
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Who would you like in 08?
"name someone who is a "fiscal conservative" then."
Well, it's a list that certainly doesn't begin with Frist and Boehner, is it? You know, the guys who run Congress? You know, the body that makes decisions on what gets spent where?
I'd like to see a combination of Gingrich and Rice.
Who would you like in 08?
Tom Coburn
Decent picks,but I do not see Newt getting the true fiscal right or Christian Right.He got "bent" too many times.
Yep. The fiscal Conservatives aren't even in charge of the Senate or House.
good pick!
Do you think Coburn thinks Pence is a fiscal conservative?
Gingrich turned me off by hanging around with Shrillary too damn long.
gotta go...will pick this up later
Rudy fans forget that value voters can make or break an election. Yea rudy did do a good job on 9/11, no ones denying that. But rudy's rampant social liberalism and his XXX personal life just will not fly with the base.
Your going to have your share of voters(republicans) who thumb their noses at you and say values dont matter(read libertarians) and we should just nominate rudy and expand the party blah blah blah.
Take comfort in the fact that almost everyone i talk to who is at first a rudy fan(conservatives that is) and then you detail to them the fact rudys a huge social lib and is an adulterer they loose respect for the man.
I'm not convinced Rudy will run in 2008.
BigSkyFeeper, you are wrong about Pence. Hes not my top pick for 2008 like Gipper here, but you will find very few people to the right of him fiscally. He's also a good speaker and debater.
For the record, as gipper here will attest, i do support Allen in 2008. I am a big fan of pence at the same time too. You can support your guy, whoever that might be, but no need to legitmately trash other candidates to bulid your guy up.
Listen, any candidate the party throws up is going to be savaged in any case by the opposition and by the press. The worst that can be said about Gingrich is that he got an advance on a book deal under shady circumstances. Like every Congresscritter worth his haircut hasn't profited personally from his public service?
He's an historian, and he knows the ins and outs of the way things get done within the government.
As for whether or not he can get by the ideologues in the party, I don't see why not: fiscal conservative, small-goevrnment type, pro-life, pro-war, pro-Constitution. What's not to like? The only thing that will hold him back with the Taliban wing of the party is that he probably won't promise to have illegal aliens shot on sight or the homosexuals marched to the ovens.
He's more than capable of weathering that storm, and making a reasonable case for Conservastism and has a track record (Contract with America) that Pence, Allen, McCain, Pataki or any other name floating around cannot come close to. It would also be sweet to watch Newt take the Hildebeeste apart in a debate.
Condi is a smart, talented, fresh intellect that has now had experience as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. She's also the perfect foil to Hitlery -- a black female. It will be difficult to tar the GOP as an all-white men's club that doesn't give a damn about women or minorites with her standing there in obvious contradiction.
And yes, I'd like to see Rudy somewhere in the mix. I'm a native New Yorker and grew up here in the terrible days of the 1970's. He literally saved this city in ways that cannot be calculated in easy-to-define terms. You had to have lived here before his arrival to really appreciate what he did. Perhaps Attorney General Giuliani? Or diretor of DHS? The man did handle the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in our history, and before that, he took on the mob (and won)and cleaned up one of the most dangerous cities on the planet.
But, he has baggage; pro-choice, pro-gun control, messy personal life, which will keep him form a nomination for president because the prissy-pants, God-fearin' bunch hates that, but a compromise on him in a non-policy role is not out of the question. After all, people practically begged him to take on Hilary for Senate. If he hadn't just found out he had prostate cancer, he just might have done it.
Haven't heard what Coburn thinks of Pence, but looking at Pence's voting record, which is along party lines a majority of the time, I'd say Pence is towing the party line more times than exhibiting any fiscal restraint.
First of all, I'm not trashing anyone. Secondly, a little research will suggest the facts speak for themselves. At this juncture, I'm supporting Allen in '08.
An outstanding set of postings here, Don't Tread. Nice job.
The reality is the Cold War is over and there's no need for a huge air base in South Friggin' Dakota. And keeping it open for local jobs is not really that much different than the usual Democratic social programs that we've been saddled with from years of that party's control. Couple that with agricultural subsidies to SD and you've got a rather low populated state getting a whole lotta money from the federal government, aka taxpayers.
BTW...Thune was not "handpicked" by the White House. He ran against Tim Johnson two years before and lost. "Handpicked" is an exaggeration. He already had an organization in place so anyone else would have had to start from scratch. The idiot reporter that wrote this article threw that in there simple to paint the Bush Administration in a negative light. Imagine that...a Washington Post reporter slanting an article against the White House.
Look, this "news story" is propaganda from the ComPost to cause friction in the GOP, not report on it and, judging from some of the posts on this thread, it appears it's accomplishing its' desired result. I find it interesting that some folks who would normally dismiss the Post or the NY Times can be so quick to embrace them when they print propaganda like this. There's no question that occasionally the GOP has some disagreements and the MSM is quick to report on them. But tell the last time they reported about any infighting in the Democratic Party.
Yeah, that's what I thought. It doesn't happen much, does it?
Amen to that...
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