Time For Us To Go

The Washington Monthly ^ | October 2006 | Various

[hripka]

With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, conservatives these days ought to be happy, but most aren’t. They see expanding government, runaway spending, Middle East entanglements, and government corruption, and they wonder why, exactly, the country should be grateful for Republican dominance. Some accuse Bush and the Republicans today of not being true conservatives. Others see a grab bag of stated policies and wonder how they cohere. Everyone thinks something’s got to change.

Now seven prominent conservatives dare to speak the unspeakable: They hope the Republicans lose in 2006. Well, let’s be diplomatic and say they’d prefer divided government—soon. (Perhaps that formulation will fool Dennis Hastert.) Of course, all of them wish for the long-term health of conservatism, and most are loyal to the GOP. What they also believe, however, is that even if a Speaker Pelosi looms in the wings, sometimes the best remedy for a party gone astray is to give it a session in the time-out chair.

Let's quit while we're behind By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House By Bruce Fein

Idéologie has taken over By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on By Richard A. Viguerie

[ArGee]

I get VERY frustrated with the folks who can not seem to grasp the concept that we as conservatives can work toward moving the Republican Party to our positions, but have no influence on the Democrat Party.

I also suspect that governing firmly on principle, and not losing the power to govern at all, is a lot harder than the arm-chair quarterbacks here, at NR, and other places, think it is.

Not that I think that's what happened to President Bush. I think anyone who thought "Compassionate Conservatism" was cheap wasn't really listening.

Shalom.

[Dog Gone]

I wonder how many people who will post on this thread are actually on the GOP payroll.

Yeah, that's it. The GOP is paying for posters to post at this forum.

There are no REAL supporters of the GOP in this country. They're all just paid hacks.

I wonder how many who post here are on Art Bell's payroll.

[x]

Some of these guys are just lightweights. Joe Scarborough is. Viguerie's a prima donna who likes to flex his supposed political muscles. Chris Buckley is a humorist at the New Yorker who voted for Clinton in 1996. Jeffrey Hart is obsessed with stem cells. Either there's some family tragedy involved or he's convinced that they'll extend his life.

Bartlett, Fein, and Niskanen make more substantive contributions. It's understandable that some conservatives might think as they do, or that some might look back on an election and think that it was good that one's own party lost. But to look forward to loss beforehand in one of the other side's periodicals is another matter and less excusable.

[Grampa Dave]

One of these days, we will probably read how these A$$holes were paid by some Islamofascist group or George $oreA$$ to come out with this suicidal bs.

[AlexandriaDuke]

You obviously have Sean or Medved turned up too loud and can't pay attention.

NOBODY is advocating Democrat power. Why don't you read one or two of the pieces noted?

Oh wait, you can't read my two sentence posts, so I guess that's out of the question.

Have a nice time at the convention in '08!

[RebelBanker]

Again:
OK, accepting your premise of "divided government," how much power do you want the liberal Democrats to have? If they get the House, they can impeach the President for trying to protect the country from another 9/11. If they get the Senate, you can forget conservative judges getting out of the Judiciary Committee. Well?