Silver Lining in GOP's Dark Cloud

Real Clear Politics ^ | June 9, 2007 | Jack Kelly

[gpapa]

President Bush has cast a huge, dark cloud over the Republican party. But in that cloud's very size there may be a silver lining for the GOP. Most of those Americans who don't think President Bush made a mistake by going to war in Iraq are appalled by how clumsily the war has been conducted.

The president's strong backing for the "comprehensive" immigration reform bill now before the Senate, compounded by his attack on the character and motives of those who oppose it have split the GOP. Thousands of Republicans have changed their voter registration to "independent." The proportion of voters who identify themselves as Republicans has fallen to 30.8 percent from 37.3 percent during the 2004 election campaign, according to a recent Rasmussen poll.

[saganite]

LOL! You’re so wound up in Bush worship you can’t see the damage he’s doing.

Anyway, nice try at name calling and personal insult but I didn’t spot any facts in your post, just bile.

[small voice in the wilderness]

GOODLORD, look who he’s leading into battle for us! How would you like to turn around and see the likes of McCain, Graham, Warner, Collins, Snowe, Hagel,etc, as your backup? WE, the stupid, lazy, uninformed, too busy, too whiny, too bitchy, griping and complaining must-have-satisfaction-now voters put those jacka**es into office. He is leading an army of about 5 true fighters. I’m fed up with amnesty for illegals, the neverending Iraq soap opera, and his general lack of energy, enthusiasm and vision for this country. But FGS, look at the team that was given to him, by the voters. What he needs, his “team” needs, and his supporters need is a good dose of shock and awe. Not the malaise and cynicism that has settled over everyone.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

George Bush = Jimmy Carter.

[CAluvdubya]

Ya know, I've spent a lot of time reading the insults you hurl at people and have not spoken up until now.

I live much too close to the border to blindly defend our President.
I have too many illegals knocking on my door asking for work to blindly defend our President.
I have had too many close calls on the freeways and surface streets by illegals to blindly defend our President.
I have had too many hospitals close and emergency services clogged because of illegals to blindly defend our President.

I am rather sick of the selfishness in not considering my health and safety when you blindly support our President.

[ModelBreaker]

On Judges and taxcuts alone Bush has done far more good for the Conservative Movement's future then all the screaming lunatics on the radio, or penning columns. Time for the mindless twit Bush haters to finally sit down and shut up. They have done nothing but scream bile at this President since day one. Sorry but the 100%ers, like Kelly here, can look in the mirror if they want to know who the REAL enemy is. They have all spent all their time screaming bile at the GOP because they could not have only 100% of only what they wanted. Frankly, GET OFF OUR SIDE. They are cause far more trouble then they "help" with their perpetual whining and always angry rantings.

Actually MN, regardless what you think about the past, as of today, Kelly is right. The R's HAVE to run against Bush in 2008. We will get slaughtered if we don't. By his actions in the immigration fiasco, he has released his base from any requirement of ongoing loyalty. That permits the R's to run against him.

If they are smart, they will run against him on border security first, border security first, border security first. The dems cannot allow border security ever--they are building their governing majority 20 years from now by the anchor babies of illegals. The more we talk about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid blocking the fence that was authorized, the more seats we win in congress in 2008 and the more likely we are to win the presidency.

72% of the public thinks we should address border security first and W and Kennedy have raised the public awareness of the issue to an all time high with the recent, failed bill.

We now have an issue conservatives can win on and flip congress in 2008. I realize the prospect of a conservative victory probably doesn't warm the cockles of your heart. But it does mine.

Side note "Get off our side"???? You are nuts. Conservatives are about 35% of the American public. Do you think Rudy or Chuck Hagel would have ANY chance of winning without us? Get real. You're just upset that conservatives are finally asking to be treated as an equal member of the coalition. For far too long, the chamber of commerce R's have run the party lock-stock-and-barrel while the conservatives dutifully went out and walked precincts for candidates approved by the chamber who pretended to be just conservative enough to keep us on the plantation. And look where it got the party.

[Tinian]

I guess Dubya is not nearly obsessed with his legacy as was Bubba during his two terms.

Bush is going to look a whole lot better after president Hillary raises taxes, nationalizes health care, consficates firearms, appoints two more Ruth Ginsbergs to the Supreme Court and grants amnesty to illegals.

[B.O. Plenty]

If "OUR SIDE" means that I have to embrace Kennedy "immigration" ideas....I no longer want to be on your side.

I am grateful for the conservative things that Pres Bush did...SCOTUS justices, (temporary) tax cuts...taking the war to the muslim extremists...bringing dignity and honor back to the White House....et al...

But what does it matter if we let him destroy the essence of our Country by overwhelming it by a strange, corrupt and foreign culture?

It makes no sense to me why any American would embrace such an idea.

btw...the only "mistake" I think Bush made re: the wah....the war is not a real war. A real war is devistation...air strikes and naval bombardments...subjugation of the population...setting down a rule of law and making the people live by it.

[ModelBreaker]

Spend all your time whining, just like Leftist Democrats, the Republicans suck!

Well, as a national party, they do. So does the state party where I live. Now, they suck less than the democrats. But they still suck rather substantially.

This, MN, comes from a guy who was an elected party official until very recently.

[Delphinium]

To fight a "war on terror" and leave the border completely open, and then to team up with the fat murderer and dirty Harry to open it up even further, is a betrayal of monumental, stupendous and historical proportions.

It certainly is a contradiction isn't it? Way too big to ignor.

[paul51]

Contributions to the Republican National Committee from small donors have fallen by 40 percent, reported the Washington Times, forcing the RNC to shut down its telephone solicitation operation

Good. Let them rot so they can no longer support the likes of specter, luger, graham, et al with our money. Support individual candidates that deserve your vote.

[quadrant]

I know my opinion will meet argument, but I believe in a decade that Republicans will be glad GWB was president. I beleive that a lot of the decisions he’s made will be seen in retrospect as courageous and bold - and the right ones to make at the time.
Of course, such a prediction does not help Republicans running in 2008, but how and to what degree Republican candidates distance themselves from Bush is an individual decision, but I caution each of them to take a long view: many decisions and events that seem negative at the time are positive in the long run.
And don’t retort that in the long run we’re all dead. That is too simplistic an answer for a profession as complicated as politics.

[LS]

Since he built it back up after 9/11, and won two straight congressional victories, I guess he can wreck it a little. Funny there is no vitriol here directed at Ronald Reagan who signed an amnesty bill in 1986.

[LadyNavyVet]

I have to respectfully disagree. Ronald Reagan didn’t have nearly the allies in Congress that Bush had and got a lot more done. Bush’s problem from the getgo was the “new tone” BS. He actually thought he could be friends with the Dems and they would be friends back. One of his first acts in office was to invite the Kennedys to watch that movie about JFK and one of his second acts was to collude with Ted on the No Child Left Behind Act. Kennedy has repaid him with ugly vitriol, but here’s Ted right back in the middle of the Sell America Down the River with Amnesty Act of 2007, and he and Bush are bestest buddies. That is, until Ted stabs Bush in the back the next time.

Bush has been obsessed since the beginning of his Presidency with making nicey nice with those who despise him while ignoring the conservative men and women in Congress who should have been his natural allies. If he has nobody left in Congress to follow his lead, and he pretty much doesn’t, he should look in the mirror to see why.

After 911 Bush had the best opportunity in several generations to remake the country in a conservative image, and he blew it. Completely. Now, sadly, he’s teetering on the edge of being a failed President, desperately grasping at a legacy, any legacy, at least as openly as Bill Clinton did in his final months. And Bush has NO ONE to blame but himself.

[B.O. Plenty]

It was tounge in cheek....note the "dont you know"

I agree with you...

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Anything posted from MNJohnnie has all the credibility of Keith Olbermann.

[MNJohnnie]

Look at all the usual rabid Bush haters suddenly pop up on this thread and try to rationalize away their role in this mess!

And the really sick thing? No matter who the GOP nominates, they will do the exact same thing in 2008. Because NO leader will ever be able to follow their little 100%er dogma straight down the line. Elections are won by leaders best able to harness a coalition of interests, not by leaders who are fanatics about doctrinal purity.

Wonder what all the Ultra Conservatives around here would of made of a President that signed a real Illegal Alien Amnesty, 2 tax hikes, doubled Federal Spending, spent record deficits, negotiated with Iran, appointed a Liberal Judge to the Supreme Court and ran away from a Muslim Terrorist threat?

Would they be screaming "El Presidente" "Traitor" etc at him like they do at Bush?

That President was Ronald Reagan.

[WannabeTurk]

Whaaaaaa! Sniff...

[LachlanMinnesota]

My take on this is that I am not merely upset at the fact that Bush is not 100% in sinc with my views, for I have supported him through many issues about which I disagree.

It is that the times he is opposed are on the make or break issues that will not be capable of reversal in the future once passed, such as immigration. Even a raise in taxes can be reversed later with a recovery to follow. However, opening the borders is not reversable and will not be capable of correction in the future.

That, combined with Bush’s total misrepresentation as to the effect of S1362, while calling people who do not agree 100% with him on immigration anti-American, are the reasons why my long-time support for Bush has made me so opposed to him now.

When it mattered most, he let us down...

[WannabeTurk]

Uh, he wasn’t at war with radical Muslims who killed 3000 of our people, and Ronald Reagan did not bitch slap his base by calling them anti-American fear mongers!

[LS]

Coulda fooled me. He staged our first RETREAT from “radical Muslims.” No, Reagan never publicly said anything about his base. Read his letters. In private, he disdained “single issue” voters from his side.