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Hard Core Republicans Are Fleeing President
The Washington Post ^ | May 11, 2006 | JIm VandeHei and Peter Baker

Posted on 05/10/2006 7:15:13 PM PDT by Dems_R_Losers

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.

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: adolescents; borderlist; bush; bushbots; conservatives; gopcheerleader; sickofrinos; wetoleratenodissent
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Comment #301 Removed by Moderator

To: RasterMaster
who's really responsible for the pork

make them give the president line item veto...........duh

302 posted on 05/10/2006 8:28:51 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." LINCOLN)
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To: Conservative Goddess

I'm surprised to see you on these threads; after all, there's a new Rick Santorum thread up (he's doing much better!!) -- I thought for sure you'd be over there trashing him.


303 posted on 05/10/2006 8:29:36 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Randy Larsen

Nope I sure don't agree with you, I understand that we have a small majority in Congress and we do not RULE Congress, so you and I will NEVER get everything we want... It's called life, and the sooner you accept this fact of life, the sooner you will climb out of your pit of despair


304 posted on 05/10/2006 8:29:43 PM PDT by MJY1288 (THE DEMOCRATS OFFER NOTHING FOR THE FUTURE AND THEY LIE ABOUT THE PAST)
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To: RasterMaster

Me too. I don't agree with everything he does. But then, I don't agree with anyone in the entire world 100%. It will never happen.

And with Bush, you get what you see. He doesn't play word games.


305 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:12 PM PDT by Peach
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To: Randy Larsen
Don't whine to me about how I should vote when the leaders of the party have not done close to half of what was promised.

That's completely untrue. The President has for the most part kept his promises. That fact that some are upset he hasn't changed his position on guest workers is their problem, not his.

To accuse the President of breaking promises is unfair. He didn't promise to seal the borders.

306 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:18 PM PDT by You Dirty Rats (I Love Free Republic!!!)
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To: Armedanddangerous
Yep, what are we gonna do? Stay home and let the damn commies have America for eight years?

That's been the Dem strategy for the past 20 years or so--"Vote for us because Republicans are eeevil."

It's really worked well for them, hasn't it?

See tagline.

If the GOP can't bother to actually be a conservative party, why should I bother supporting them? Fear of the Dems is a reason--it's just becoming a less and less convincing one all by itself. Especially now that the GOP itself seems to be run by people who are more comfortable with Ted Kennedy than Tom Tancredo.
307 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:36 PM PDT by Antoninus (I will not vote for a liberal, regardless of party.)
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To: M203M4


Lord have mercy.


308 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:53 PM PDT by onyx (Deport the trolls --- send them back to DU)
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To: SouthernFreebird
You misspelled your 'name' - it should be SouthernFried
309 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:58 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." LINCOLN)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
I'm ready to vote for Lou Dobbs, if things don't improve.

So you're voting Democratic this year?

310 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:58 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin

you know, I've been reading your replies from yesterday and today and I want to ask you one question: Who the hell are you to shout anybody on this forum down? If you can't argue without insults and capping your replies, why don't you get the hell off the site?


311 posted on 05/10/2006 8:30:59 PM PDT by steel_resolve (Illegal aliens don’t take jobs Americans won’t; they take wages Americans won’t)
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To: Conservative Goddess

I'm 22 and Social Security is one of my biggest issues but it's certainly not going to get done if the rats are in charge. As I recall, THEY'RE the ones who were applauding during the SOTU about nothing getting done, not the Republicans.


312 posted on 05/10/2006 8:31:04 PM PDT by ilovew (Democrat enablers are not conservatives.)
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To: maine-iac7
Dude, I don't need to read any White House propaganda. I used to live in Northern Virginia and I have family in Atlanta and central Kentucky, and I have seen the invasion up close and personal in all of those places. If you haven't, you need to get out more. People in those areas, which used to be Republican, are PISSED at this government. And I lived in San Diego in 1989-1990 and let me tell you, there were Republicans getting thrown out of office there 15 years ago over this issue. It's just taken this long for it to reach the rest of the country.

Don't worry, I live in Pennsylvania and there is no way I am voting for Ed Rendell or Bob Casey this fall, or for the 32-year-old dufus the Dems are running against Mike Fitzpatrick. And I'm not staying home either. So I am not falling prey to the liberals trying to sow discord among Republicans. Nor do I think most Republicans will. But we do wish we had some way of getting through to Karl Rove that his Hispanic strategy has backfired, and of getting through to the GOP leaders in Congress that we did not send them there to spend our money like drunken sailors!!

I've been a loyal Republican worker since the late 1970s when it was not very fashionable to be a Republican. I predate Ronald Reagan and I remember what it was like when Republicans held almost no offices of consequence anywhere and we had spineless "leaders" like Bob Michel. And we are rapidly headed back there. I've worked too hard and seen too many GOP triumphs based on ideas and real reform of government to enjoy watching Republicans campaign now on fear of how much worse it will be if the Democrats win. That's a sign of an exhausted party that does not deserve to govern anymore. And it might sell once this year, but if Bush and the Congress don't make some drastic changes it won't sell again in 2008, and you can say hello to President Hillary.

313 posted on 05/10/2006 8:31:24 PM PDT by Dems_R_Losers
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To: philoso12

That finatic Mamood ahmeteenyjihad who spouts off for Iran, keeps claiming that he will bring about the end of the world so the 12th Imam will retun to earth


314 posted on 05/10/2006 8:32:08 PM PDT by MJY1288 (THE DEMOCRATS OFFER NOTHING FOR THE FUTURE AND THEY LIE ABOUT THE PAST)
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To: Conservative Goddess
No, I mean like the fundamental tax reform we were promised in the second term....and the privatization of socialist insecurity. There has been zero, zip, nada, none, no progress on those issues whatsoever.

LOL!! Want some more grapes, goddess?

Bush wore himself out last year pushing his social security plan, and nobody would listen, not Democrats, and not even most Republicans.

And you weren't "promised" tax reform in the second term.

315 posted on 05/10/2006 8:32:15 PM PDT by sinkspur ( OK. You've had your drink. Now why don't you tell your Godfather what everybody else already knows?)
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To: VastRWCon

Just to wall 800 miles of the Southern Border will cost approx. $2.2 billion and since this isn't really loose change in the President's pocket it will take Congressional Appropriations. If the Senate proposed a bill for the appropriations but couldn't get the 60 needed because of obstructionist Democrats, would it be "bye bye" for the Democrats?


316 posted on 05/10/2006 8:32:15 PM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: Conservative Goddess
I mean like the fundamental tax reform we were promised in the second term....and the privatization of socialist insecurity. There has been zero, zip, nada, none, no progress on those issues whatsoever.

Both of those issues have been blocked in the Senate. And in any case, the President did NOT promise "privatization" of SS.

317 posted on 05/10/2006 8:32:37 PM PDT by You Dirty Rats (I Love Free Republic!!!)
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To: sinkspur

ROFL!


318 posted on 05/10/2006 8:32:46 PM PDT by Peach
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To: maine-iac7

It was passed into law during Bush 41, then the Supremes axed it.


319 posted on 05/10/2006 8:33:07 PM PDT by RasterMaster (NO MORE "BIG TENTS" - ALL YOU GET ARE CLOWNS AND CIRCUS FREAKS!)
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To: Dems_R_Losers

"Hard Core Republicans Are Fleeing President"

That's a pretty interesting statement when one considers it with the fact that people with a brain fled the Dimocrat Potty 40 years ago; a lot of them fled to the Republican side, others are now Greenies, Libertarians or undecided's. Probably this year, more Dim devotees will leave their potty since it becomes more rank with each passing day. The death of the Dims is almost within sight.


320 posted on 05/10/2006 8:33:27 PM PDT by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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