Posted on 05/04/2006 8:59:18 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
RUSH: There are Republicans planning to abandon George W. Bush in droves, particularly during this election year. Bush has had it, a 36%, 33% approval rating. The guy's an albatross around their neck. "We've got to get out of there! We don't want Bush doing anything but raising money for this," blah, blah, blah, blah. There's precedent for this. By the way, a couple of pollsters saying it's a bad move for the Republicans. You know, Republicans, I'll just give you some advice right now. All of you Republicans in Congress -- including you, Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe and all the rest of them, McCain -- you want to win reelection in this year, if you're up?
You want the Republicans to hold the House? Unify behind George W. Bush. Just do it. Just do it. Don't try to please moderate or Democrat voters by showing your independence. Just go out there and unify and support the president on a number of issues that you can. Fred Barnes, who at the time was a senior editor of the New Republic, posted a piece in the LA Times December 9th, 1986, Ronald Reagan's sixth year. Conservatives in '86 were abandoning Reagan, the most important conservative in the history of the movement in America.
"A dozen or so conservative leaders met privately at a Washington hotel last week to discuss the future of their political movement. Edward Feulner of the Heritage Foundation was there. So were New Right strategist Paul Weyrich, several fund-raisers, two officials of the Reagan Administration and a few Capitol Hill aides. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to President Reagan and the Iran arms scandal. Forget Reagan, they agreed. The President's a goner, his influence shattered forever. We've got to decide how to press our agenda without him. Only William Kristol, a top official of the Department of Education, dissented, insisting that Reagan should be defended.
"Thus, the Iran scandal has achieved what Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, the 1981-82 recession and the Marines debacle in Lebanon couldn't. It has caused the disintegration of the Reagan coalition, that blend of conservatives from fundamentalist Christians to libertarians that held together as the most unified single bloc in American politics for a decade. And even if the coalition is revived on an issue or two -- aid to the Nicaraguan contras, say, or funding the Strategic Defense Initiative -- as Reagan serves out his final two years in the White House, it won't be the dominant political force anymore.
"The matter can be put quite succinctly: Without Reagan the conservatives lack a popular leader, and without the conservatives Reagan lacks a broad ideological base. Both wind up losers, and the political balance of power tilts away from them. Sure, the conservatives are still sentimentally attached to Reagan, but he's no longer the same rallying point. Worse, there's no replacement in sight. Conservatives are fragmented on who should be the Republican presidential nominee in 1988. The gravity of the split is only now dawning on Reagan and his allies. Last Tuesday, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett denounced conservatives for ingratitude and political stupidity in abandoning Reagan.
"'There is no conservative agenda without Ronald Reagan,' Bennett said. 'He is the man who made whatever good has happened to this Administration happen, and people should be mindful of that.' Patrick J. Buchanan, the White House communications director, is even more blunt. 'There's an old saying that the major failing of American conservatives is they don't retrieve their wounded,' he said. 'Now's the time you take an inventory of your friends.' Not too many friends are turning up, however. Human Events, the weekly conservative publication that Reagan reads faithfully, has only half-heartedly defended him on the Iran arms deal.
"Linda Chavez, a White House aide until last winter, published a column in the Washington Post denouncing Lt. Col. Oliver North, the ousted National Security Council official blamed for diverting profits from the Iranian arms sales to the contras; she said that he was not a 'true conservative.' Bennett, who got Chavez her first job in the Administration, was so mad about this that he quickly spread the word that he was sorry he'd ever sponsored her. Why are conservatives so wary of supporting Reagan in his moment of greatest need?
"'Nobody believes in the issue, giving arms to Iran,' says Allan Ryskind, the editor of Human Events. 'Nobody's persuaded by the arguments. And while conservatives love the contras, they think that aiding them has now been jeopardized.' (Military aid was only narrowly approved by Congress this year, and the scandal over diverted funds makes renewal of aid less than likely.) Another source of wariness by most conservatives was the firing of North. 'Was North scapegoated or did he deserve to be fired?' asks Jeffrey Bell, an adviser to Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.). 'Until conservatives know that, they'll be on hold. They love North.' And though many conservatives may be inclined to stand with Reagan, they're unsure where to do that. With new revelations in the Iran scandal occurring daily, 'they don't know what ground to stand on,' says Bell.
"Complains Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus: 'The nature of the issue keeps changing.' Finally, there are conservatives like Phillips who always regarded Reagan as too moderate for their taste. 'We wish the best for him, but we're going to focus more on the 1988 presidential race than on helping his cause,' Phillips says. 'Reagan has turned over the substance of policy to people in fundamental disagreement with the policies he's rhetorically espoused.' Phillips is resistant to lobbying. His friend Buchanan pleaded with him over dinner last Wednesday to come to the President's defense. Afterwards, Phillips went on ABC-TV's 'Nightline' and trashed Reagan."
Is it not interesting? It seems like history is repeating. Now, I know Bush is no Reagan (don't misunderstand) in the sense of leading a movement, and I've been the first to say this. But what's interesting is they just want to abandon him, and I'll tell you, there is something in here that's really true: Conservatives do not retrieve their "wounded" from the battlefield; they abandon them. There is so much -- especially more so today than ever before, there's so much -- competition out there. Conservatism has gotten so big; it has so many people who want to claim to be the leader, claim to be the definers, that if anybody takes a hit, they're happy to let them fade away because of the competition.
You know, conservatives do have competitors within the ranks. When the competitors bite the bullet, bite the dust, they're only too willing to let them, some of them them are, just fade away. There is not a whole lot of public defense, including of the president. Now, it's true the president is not defending himself, either. But I'll tell you something, I remember this period. I was working in Sacramento at the time, and I was wondering during this whole Iran Contra stuff, where's Reagan? He was being trashed every day in the media. "Where's Reagan? Why didn't he get up there and answer this stuff?"
Some people were saying, "Because he can't! Because he can't. Because it's true," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They say the same thing about Bush. "Why doesn't he go out there and defend himself?" Well Bush's answer is he doesn't care. He's got his job to do and he doesn't think it's PR spin. It's the same thing with Cheney. Cheney's got a piece coming out in Vanity Fair, I guess, or an interview with him, and they ask him (summarized): "What about your horrible public image?" He said, "I'm not in the public image business. I guess I could improve it if I went out there and tried to improve it, but that's not what my job is. My job is not public spin. My job is not my public image," and so it's amazing, these parallels.
Yet when Ronald Reagan died, all these people who abandoned him (those still around) were muscling trying to get in the front row, trying to make sure they were all over the place to be seen as loyal, never-wavering supporters. The '86 midterm elections, you know, these defections, and people who said, "We can't run with Reagan! Why, Reagan is destroying us." There's always been this tendency on the conservative side to, when there's trouble, split the scene and run away -- and, you know, Reagan did some things to irritate conservatives. While he cut taxes he also raised them at times. You know, abandoning Lebanon after the Marine barracks was hit, that wasn't popular with people. But look how time changes things. When you go back and you look at the totality of a period of time, I don't remember during the funeral week of Ronald Reagan, other than his son and maybe a couple Democrats, but even they were pretty quiet. I don't remember any of these conservatives stepping forward to remind everybody how effectiveless and worthless and pointless the last two or three years of Reagan's term were, do you?
END TRANSCRIPT
True.. just stand still.. Bush is and has been running away from republicans.. Currently he's out of sight.. Running after him would requiring knowing wheres he at.. I think he hiding out in the enemy camp.. The only question is why is he there.. Is he a covert republican spy?, or is he an overt democrat double agent?.. On the other hand he might be a globalist that laughs at both parties.. Where one party hates him and other party loves him.. Politics in America today is like, the Simpsons meet the King of the Hill gang.. a good environment for a globalist..
That is precisely the kind of supercilious, studied ignorance that is going to hand the Congress to the Democrats this year.
I pray people like you give up your "abandoning our wounded, even though they are still running things," drivel before it is too late.
JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL
Rush for the Border Limbaugh issues a warning to President Bush.
Monday, January 31, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
ORLANDO, Fla.--In the aftermath of 9/11, conservatives bottled up their frustrations over some of President Bush's policies. Then they muted their criticism during the presidential campaign. But now it is spilling out in all directions--and the White House had better pay attention.
On Friday Rush Limbaugh, a staunch Bush supporter, took two separate opportunities to warn the president that he faced conservative opposition on some key issues that could hurt his chances of passing the rest of his second-term agenda.
First was federal spending, which "is surging out of control," according to the Heritage Foundation's new "Mandate for Leadership."
The other was immigration, which, Mr. Limbaugh told his listeners, "could break up the Republican-conservative coalition" à la Ross Perot. "We cannot maintain our sovereignty without securing and protecting our borders in an era where terrorists around the world seek entry to this country," he said." ...snip
sw
Would you be amazed if those same conservatives left their spouses just because the spouse was making it with the neighbor?
Wake UP!
Conservatives are jumping ship because of a Harriet Miers level betrayal on multiple levels.
His poll numbers are in the toilet, he can't push through many of his ideas (SS, tax cuts, etc), and now GOPers are going to run from him, when they know, full well, that the Dems will tie them together in ad after ad.
I just hate it when fellow morons brush this off by saying "Oh no, Bush won't be elected again". Allowing those lies to stick has consequences...
Oh, and to hell with those of you who constantly... called me negative for complaining about the reticence to set the record straight... saying Bush was playing rope-a-dope... saying the dinosaur media is close to extinct and has little influence... saying the American public is smart enough to sort out the truth on our own...
WRONG on all counts!!!
The other was immigration, which, Mr. Limbaugh told his listeners, "could break up the Republican-conservative coalition" à la Ross Perot. "We cannot maintain our sovereignty without securing and protecting our borders in an era where terrorists around the world seek entry to this country," he said." ...snip
Excuse me...is that an elephant in the living room?
Its not a point of whether or not Bush is running again, it shows that are party is unified. What our party needs to be doing is coming up with smart, popular legislative ideas and working with Bush to get them done. Makes me sick to see our party sitting on their thumbs and doing nothing when we have the power. We will lose because they aren't sticking together. And im not only talking about the RINO's out there.
What will Bush do for conservatives over the next 3 years? Will he phone it in like his father? If he does nothing, he destroys the republican party. Pretty clear to me.
The point about abandoning Bush is that those running for election are distancing themselves from him.
The Party above all else propaganda is starting to sound like Soviet propaganda. Considering the fact that the GOP seems hell bent on importing marxists and getting them to vote, you really have to wonder what the goal is.
As long as the recovery involves candidates that actually want to reduce government's reach into our daily lives. The current crop have spread government like cancer.
What was the point of posting this tripe probably cut from the DU site? Most of that stuff has no basis in fact or even fiction.
Getting tired of these boards taken over by the Bush haters. Get with the program people, if you don't want the left to take over we stick together.
Come November "06 and "08 and Dems gain the majority and nuts like Kennedy, Leahy, Biden, Durbin Rangel, Kucinich and the like are running both the Senate and the House, you tell me how that will be an improvement over the current situation. You better wake up.
j
Yes, the key IS what Rush says in today's article. Rush has spoken out on issues that he feels President Bush isn't handling the way he (we) want him to, just as your article from 2005 suggested. But like me, Rush isn't about to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Good post. Maybe some of those who are saying they'll vote Dem or third party next time will reacquaint themselves with the idiots they're threatening to get in bed with. LOL
What a good name for them. LOL Excellent thread, btw. Thank you.
I have one congressman and one senator to vote for in November. In California my senator vote is a joke since the GOP never runs anyone qualified and simply give Boxer and DiFi the seat.
My congressman is very new (Campbell) just got there on a special election.
Other GOP'er cannot run on a successful record of lower government, smaller taxes, indiviual rights or Constitutional freedom - you know the things we put them into office for and they failed.
So, they are like all politicans, blaming someone else. The MSM blames Bush for everything so this is just another media bush bashing we play into.
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