2 authors explore the GOP's distress

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | May 7, 2006 | Thomas Lipscomb

[WaterDragon]

The Republican Party is uneasy as it shambles toward the crucial 2006 congressional elections. Many of its supporters claim to feel demoralized, if not seduced and abandoned, by the conservative president they thought they elected in 2004. With President Bush's Nixonian economic policies and unwillingness to curtail federal spending, and the Republican faithful as confused as everyone else about the Iraq War, this is a good time to gain some political perspective from two veteran architects of the Reagan Revolution.

In the midst of another difficult political predicament, Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, once said he had finally found two experts who clearly understood the problem. Unfortunately, they disagreed with one another on the solution. So do Bruce Bartlett and Kevin Phillips. But with the GOP political-direction-finder whirling like a compass needle in a magnetic storm, perhaps they can at least help illustrate its different aspects.

[jammer]

I just forgot how Reagan was labeled a traitor to the Conservative cause on more than one occasion.

Again, I ask Water dragon, and now you: who labeled Reagan a traitor? Provide some citations, or at least some names.

[onyx]

And, isn't it odd, that some here still proclaim that the old media is dying and irrelevant. LOL.

EXACTLY!

No, the old media is breathing well. They're numbers are going down but they just lie more and more blatantly, and the uninformed voters eventually absorb their repeated distortions.

I revert back to your excellent observation above!

[beyond the sea]

EXACTLY! ......... I revert back to your excellent observation above!

Danke ............. and looking back at my post ..... I'm regretting that I wrote "They're numbers" instead of "their numbers".

I hate when that happens.

;-)

My excuse/explanation: It's the season here when I work about 14 hours a day/seven days a week .......... the rest of the precious hours are spent on the excellent FR.

;-)

[onyx]

I know you're eddykated.
We all make those errors in haste and I do not proof read.

[beyond the sea]

We all make those errors in haste and I do not proof read.

And ........ we all know from your very decent and intelligent posts that you too are "eddykated".

Gotta get out of here now.......... I'm feeling VERY guilty.

love (in the proper way) from 'The Ranch' ........... (no, no, I named my small business that before I started caring and voting for G.W.)

;-)

[onyx]

Go tend to your flowers. I'll talk to you later. That link still doesn't work... got another?

[Kuksool]

Very Good Analysis on the IL-06. Don't forget the IL GOP ticket for Attorney General and Governor carried the IL-06 in the very bad GOP year of 2002 for IL Republicans. Unlike elsewhere in the nation, Roskam supporters are energized to keep Hyde's district Red.

Illinois conservatives had our demoralization in 2004. Now we are ready to prove to the nation we are not the laughingstock of the nations.

[rodeocowboy]

From your tag line: (The GOP should remember the fate of the Whigs as they run away from their base.)

True that!

[Kuksool]

{Just remember the GOP base, has two wings in tension with one another.}

I think this one reason why both President Bush and the GOP Congress are so listless for the past 2 years. They don't want to pursue an agenda of any kind for fear of offending either the RINO wing and the Red Meat wing.

[hosepipe]

[ i would certainly say that idealogues and people who are dogmatic are often unhappy ]

Opposite of dogmatic is liberal.. Liberals moderate decision.. and rarely get anything done.. except as hipshot judgements..

[AntiGuv]

Denenberg officially announced yesterday: Battle is on to unseat Rep. King.

FWIW, I'm moving this off the Watch List and into Likely R.

[kenavi]

What would you have had the President do?

[TheCrusader]

"What would you have had the President do?"?

Are you referring to Terri Schiavo? Well, many conservatives wrote here in FR that there was more than ample precedent for him to intervene on her behalf. They cited several cases, (which I do not have), dating from the 1800's to the late 20th century. Bubba Clinton used the feds to intervene in the Elian Gonzales case while that case was still winding its way through the Federal Appeals Courts, and though many did not like it, nobody made a legal challenge to his authority to do it. Bush could have stepped up and saved Terri's life and cited the Clinton-Elian action as precedent.

I firmly believe that if Bush had done something similar for Terri Schiavo it would have bolstered his popularity enormously, because it simply was the right thing to do. He had the force of the House, the Senate, the Christian Church leaders, and the majority of the American people behind him. At the very least he could have made his political speech about how "it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak" before they starved the poor girl to death, and then taken steps to put his money where his mouth was. As it were, he embarrassed himself with that statement by not acting on his own (alleged) beliefs.

[kenavi]

Bush could have stepped up and saved Terri's life and cited the Clinton-Elian action as precedent.

Elian's case was an immigration matter, unquestionably under Federal jurisdiction.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not accept Terri Schiavo's case as an issue of Federal law.

All President Bush had was the bully pulpit, which he exercised modestly and appropriately in the form of a quiet coda to the crazed public debate. To have acted differently merely to gain voter support would have been demogogic. President Bush's behavior demonstrated respect towards the sanctity of the life in question.