Posted on 06/01/2007 5:41:16 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
However, now I do not feel alone. Peggy Noonan has a new column up in the Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal. She has clearly said what has been getting me down. I think I knew what was up, but couldn't put a finger on it. I knew it centered around the immigration debate, and the way our congressional leaders are behaving. That sentiment especially includes Mr. Bush too, but when I read this column, I felt like Charlie Brown yelling at Lucy at her Psychology booth when he yells, "That's it!" when trying to identify why he can't get into the Christmas spirit.
Try this clip on for size :
The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.
For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said,
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
The day I change my registration to Independent will be the day the Repub party nominates a RINO like Rudy McCaRomney for president. I don't want to be associated with people who would support men like those 3 for the leadership of the nation.
My voting record goes back to JFK vs Nixon in 1960, and up until now it has been solid Republican. But I suffered through the country club Republican era of Rockefeller, Javits, Brooke, and the like, and I won't follow the current crop of RINO supporters into another era of Rockefeller-Republicanism no matter who the Dems put up.
Agreed!!!!!!!!
“Treason lobby.”
I think you have just illustrated what I was saying, which is that certain extreme elements started out determined not to negotiate and to regard anyone who deviated from their position as being automatically evil. Now Bush is doing exactly the same thing, unfortunately, and it’s no prettier when he does it.
But I do think that failure to engage in constructive argument and the immediate resorting to invective and things like calling Bush “Jorge” a year ago, when this was all just a suggestion and he might have been open to argument and still had a GOP majority, is what has brought us to this point. Politics is the art of the possible, and setting out an impossible position as your only offer from the very start is a good way to simply get yourself left out of the discussion altogether. And that is exactly what has happened.
Shrieking and screaming at your Senators and Reps might still do something now, if you can get their attention and convince them that siding with the Dems again is not something they want to do in your state. If this bill gets rejected or simply dies quietly, as I hope it does, I hope the next go-round with this (because something MUST be done about the situation) gets more realistic, rational input from the right and less raving, which just makes us look like fools and appears to confirm everything the liberals say.
I disagree with this Immigration Bill.
I'm sorry if there are those that think poorly of me, because when I heard what Laura Ingrahm said, I applauded her for saying it. When she said give us--your base--that disagree with you, the same courtesies you extend to those on the left (her reference to the "reach across the isle" patience our President offers those as horrible as Pelosi, Murtha, Kennedy...and the like); I thought she expressed something I was feeling inside....no hate--simply stating a request to be heard with the same kind ears he has for those others we all disagree with.
I love this President, and I can disagree with him and still back his positions on other matters. I would never consider myself a hater...just confused as to why his heart is taking him to a place I cannot follow.
Perhaps this is your feeling, too, txrangerette?
Many don't realize that their vote in the primaries may have the greatest potential impact.
Yep, fatigue is even your last name ;-)
I’m saying, Laura interpreted his remarks as telling us we are unpatriotic if we don’t support his bill.
That’s not what he said. Or meant, either.
But if you’ve read this thread from the first, or others like it, very many posts savagely attack him for supposedly saying we’re unpatriotic if we disagree with the bill. My complaint about what LI said is related to THAT. Naturally I do agree with her in opposing the bill.
People on this thread are actually saying “F you” to the President and glorying in it. And getting away with it. And congratulating each other for it. There is a sickness on display here.
I’m not saying that about anyone, like you, who simply makes clear their opposition to the bill. I’m talking about something terribly ugly and disheartening. The reason why owf and others have left FR. It’s in full-throated cry here.
Fred’s the man everybody wants and I’m just slightly suspicious of him because he won’t talk about things like the NAU and “free-trade” with China.
There is much to be grateful for with this President and I've learned long ago that people are very fickle. There are also those that have been waiting in the wings for something like this to happen so they could come out and attack.
I'm not ready to agree with Gore'S RANT about Bush ;-) Those people are giving away more info about themselves than sharing a stand about this President.
Excellent post. You hit all the points very well. I am impressed. Thank you for the ping.
No shiite. I was commneting on the fact he had his chance from 94 to 98 and DID nothing while in office. From 2002 to 2006 the republican controlled Congress under Frist could have done something too.
////////////
nah.
Newt was the guy who made all the budget reforms that gave Clinton the surplus. Clinton took the credit for it. But the work was Newts. That’s what the contract with America in 1994 was all about.
Then Bush ran up the spending and made deficits of Newt’s surpluses.
Nothing in the contract with america had anything about border control. His next one will.
When I last voted as an independent, I was able to request a republican or democrat ballot for the primary. Here's the Ca website. You can vote in the republican primary.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_decline.htm
“The crux of the complaints from supporters of the deal have a large grain of truth. There is a sense from the immigration hard-line that it’s “deport or nothing,” which is a non-starter on several levels. Indeed that’s exactly the position we got from that wing while the GOP still controlled the Congress, and thus getting a reasonable deal done didn’t happen. Now those chickens have come home to roost, and the hard-line not only has absolutely no chance of getting what they want, but their unwillingness to compromise (litmus test: dare say the word AMNESTY and watch ‘em jump) has marginalized them within their own party.
“The hard-line folks did this, which is sad because we need them to influence the outcome, even if it isn’t what they want!
“To solve the immigration problem you got to make a deal with the devil and offer amnesty. The hard line refused to budge an inch, and now the political sands have shifted and they are marginalized, and as a result we get a crap compromise (which is Bush’s responsibility). That’s kinda how it works.”
Can’t say I disagree with this at all. I hope the “marginalized” portion isn’t quite true, and that we still can get some leverage to make this Senate stupidity have more teeth, but I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.
I voted for Bush as Governer and President each election.
Now he calls me unpatriotic because I don't want to live in Mexico and don't want Mexico to replace the USA.
He makes me question the wisdom of my votes for him.
Well stated. I agree with you.
Great...revolt away!
Turns out President Bush didn’t “call [you] unpatriotic” ... I suggest that you look at txrangerette’s posts#371 & 387... and followup posts.
Read post #371.
here, let’s make it easy for folks:
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/opinion/x537528480
Looks like Dubya never got the old lesson from his grandparents about
how you can’t unring a bell you’ve rung.
Not matter how many spin-doctors you dispatch to undo the damage done by
truly speaking your mind and having it end up in print.
Thus, the kicker passage for me:
“
OK, vote against it then “if you don’t want to do what’s right for America.”
They want al Qaeda to win.
He accused opponents of immigration reform of using distortion and scare tactics “to frighten our citizens.” That’s exactly what the
Democrats accused Bush of doing in 2004 and 2006 but, hey, it worked for
him then and it might work for him now.
Just as the campaign used to do, after Bush accused his opponents of
being unpatriotic and un-American, a senior official approached
reporters to say, “In no way was he questioning anyone’s patriotism or
desire to do what’s right.”
“
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