"Since the Republicans don't have a reputation for...smashing their enemies"
It makes me physically nauseous to reflect that I have nowhere else to pin my hopes but on a party that doesn't have a reputation for smashing its enemies.
Smashing enemies is a necessary part of politics. If you are a private citizen you can be as nice as you want, and turn the other cheek as often as you want. If you are a political leader, you owe it to the people you govern to defend them.
Yes, there are limits. I don't say that Bush needs to kill people, as the clintons frequently did. But he could at least reward the ordinary people of his voting base with spending cuts, for instance. And he could punish lying reporters by denying them press passes. And he could weed out the corrupt clintonoids from his own security agencies and other branches of government.
Hillary probably has more pull with the FBI and the CIA than Bush does, even today. Why hasn't Bush cleaned out the clintonoid criminals and stooges from the agencies? Why is he letting Democrat criminals run free, while members of his own administration are being unjustly persecuted by Democrat controlled prosecutors and judges?
You can't afford to be Mr. Nice Guy when you are President. You have responsibilities to the country.