Hard Core Republicans Are Fleeing President

Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data.

Bush and Congress have suffered a decline in support from almost every part of the conservative coalition over the past year, a trend that has accelerated with alarming implications for Bush's governing strategy.

The Gallup polling organization recorded a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple weeks. These usually reliable voters are telling pollsters and lawmakers they are fed up with what they see as out-of-control spending by Washington and an abandonment of core conservative principles more generally.

There are also significant pockets of conservatives turning on Bush and Congress over the their failure to tighten immigration laws, restrict gay marriage and to put an end to the Iraq war and the rash of political scandals, according to lawmakers and pollsters.

Bush won two presidential elections by pursuing a political and governing model that was predicated on winning and sustaining the loyal backing of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives. The strategy was based on the belief that conservatives, who are often more politically active than the general public, could be inspired to vote in larger numbers and would serve as a reliable foundation for his presidency. The theory, as explained by Bush strategists, is that the president would enjoy a floor below which his support would never fall.

It is now apparent that this floor has weakened dramatically and collapsed in places.

And just as a reminder:

Why don't you and your fellow Tancredo haters get with the Democrats who also hate Republican Conservative Tom Tancredo almost as much as you, and see if you can shop around for a grand jury that will indict him on those charges ala Tom Delay? That would be constructive and certainly would demonstrate your support for Conservative Republicans in Congress. I can assure you that you will fail because if there had been an actual crime committed, or even if a liberal thought he could prosecute Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo on that charge and make a grand jury believe for a second that a crime was committed, they would have done it already. Certainly his Democrat opponent, who brought the issue up just like you have to attack Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo, would have ensured that the charges were filed, the grand jury convened, and Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo indicted ala Tom Delay.
So, you all keep bringing this stuff up like it means something in your little Tancredo Trashfests. Meanwhile, 89 other Conservative Republican Congressmen have joined Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo's Immigration Reform Caucus and support his efforts. When you smear the Conservative Republican Chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus and the leader of the immigration reform movement in Congress, you also smear the nearly 40% of Republicans in the House who have signed up as members of that caucus.
Finally, Jim Robinson has made it clear that we MUST work to assure the election of conservative Republicans to Congress and that anything openly counter to that effort is not going to be tolerated on FR. When you attack and smear Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo, using the very same attacks that his Democrat opponent did, you're clearly working to defeat a Conservative Republican and elect a Democrat to fill a House seat. You and the other Tancredo Trashing haters may want to consider that as you use every opportunity available to you to trash Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo. Yesterday, one of you Tancredo Trashers actually delighted in the idea of Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo dying a gruesome death. Disgusting.
1,640 posted on 05/12/2006 5:46:41 PM EDT by Spiff

Link, please. Fox News, Denver Post, etc. disagree with you.

No, they don't. Neither does the actual law that you are libelously accusing Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo of violating.

This is what I posted in another thread to counter the lies being told about Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo. One of the sources I used was the Denver Post. Find your own link, I'm not doing your homework for you.

Rep. Tom Tancredo did not hire illegal aliens. You are a liar and are repeating false information from a series of false attacks perpetrated by Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo's Democrat opponents.

Creative Drywall Design was contracted to do drywall for Rep. Tancredo's home theater. Creative Drywall Design was required by law to check the immigration status of its employees. Creative Drywall Design did, in fact, check the immigration status of its employees and they had all the legal documents from those employees which demonstrated that they were legal to be hired. Two employees later said that they had provided false documentation to Creative Drywall Design.

Neither Rep. Tom Tancredo, nor Creative Drywall Design were determined to have broken any laws. If you understood the laws you would understand that.

Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo believed he had hired a reputable contractor - who possessed appropriate contractor licenses, etc. - to perform the work in his home. Creative Drywall Design complied with the law and was able to produce the documentation that the employees had provided them. If Tom Tancredo had grabbed the hispanic, spanish-speaking employees that the contractor had hired and demanded to know their immigration status, you and the Democrats would have been charging him with racism or "ethnic animus". He could have been sued under the Civil Rights Act for doing so. He trusted the reputable company and the reputable company trusted that they had the right documentation. The Denver Post reported the following about the contractor:

Creative Drywall owner J.J. Fukunaga said he has documents on file showing that each of the company's 15 employees is legally entitled to work in the U.S. The documents vary by employee but in some cases include copies of Social Security cards and driver's licenses, he said. When asked to show copies of those documents, he declined. [This is a privacy issue. He should not produce such documentation to a newspaper reporter.]
The workers are paid by check and taxes withheld, Fukunaga said. "We are more organized and more in compliance than any other construction company out there," he said.
Fukunaga said the company pays competitive wages, and the two workers agreed, saying they were satisfied with conditions at Creative Drywall.

This whole situation has been checked out by Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo's Democrat opposition and they found that there was no legal issues here at all. In fact, they've dropped this particular smear because it has been discredited and disproven.

Immigration lawyers who have reviewed the case have cleared Rep. Tancredo of any wrongdoing or lawbreaking. The two illegal aliens who had provided false documentation to their employer and who had worked, unknown to Rep. Tancredo, on the basement project were motivated to come forward because they later heard of Rep. Tancredo's anti-illegal immigration positions and they knew that it would hurt Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo if they went to the liberal press with the story.

These are the facts of the case. You can either read them and understand them or you can ignore them and continue to use Free Republic - a conservative forum - to attack and smear Conservative Republican Tom Tancredo who has been awarded with a 100% "Best and Brightest" rating from the American Conservative Union.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.