Posted on 07/13/2007 5:15:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
Watching a steady stream of Democrats like Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer each take their turn delightedly pummeling President Bush over the war in Iraq today, I couldn’t help but think of fellow conservatives who are starting to give aid and comfort to these Democrat Party loyal oppositionists.
According to Byron York of the National Review, the Republican Party base has simply decided to throw Mr. Bush under the wheels of the bus. Since so many of us disagree with him on things like illegal immigration and Scooter Libby, York opines that a whole bunch of Republican loyalists are practically counting the days until Jan. 20, 2009, when a new commander-in-chief takes up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Other conservative voices are jumping on the Bush-bashing bandwagon. The other night on Fox News, I saw a radio host proclaim that the president’s soft stance on illegals has cost him support for the war in Iraq.
Just what, precisely, is the point?
Why do conservatives believe that trashing the Bush Administration’s efforts on everything from this complicated war to a commutation of a vice-presidential aide will accomplish anything but give Democrats more ammunition against the GOP in 2008
Look, I’m as disappointed in this administration’s attempted amnesty for illegals as anyone. But I looked President Bush in the eye in the Oval Office and saw a man who truly believes in his heart that giving illegals a “path to citizenship” is the right thing to do.
I believe he’s wrong. But I know that this good and decent man believes he’s right.
So because of this issue, I’m supposed to abandon my president?
I’m expected to go on radio and TV and give miserable attack dogs like Dick Durbin more ways to say, “See -- even Republican supporters of Bush are defecting!”?
From the day the bombs started dropping on Baghdad, President Bush kept telling us that nothing about this war would be easy. Our nation has never attempted something as bold as installing democracy in this troubled part of the world and attempting to make a country like Iraq stable enough so that they can handle their own terrorists without our intervention.
Simply put, the vast majority of Americans supported our country’s pre-emptive strike. The longer this battle rages, the more we see impatient Americans start complaining. I guess that’s what a society in a Tivo/Iphone era does.
And I certainly expect that from Democrats who blame George W. Bush for everything from hurricanes to health care.
But I think it takes some guts to stand behind a president who is doing what he believes to be right, even in the face of enormous opposition.
Liberals are emboldened by Republican-fueled criticism. And if good folks like Byron York aren’t careful, we’ll be handing over the White House on a silver platter to Hillary or Barack. After all, just how far can Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson distance themselves from the Bush Administration?
Liberals are emboldened by Republican-fueled criticism. And if good folks like Byron York aren’t careful, we’ll be handing over the White House on a silver platter to Hillary or Barack. After all, just how far can Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson distance themselves from the Bush Administration?
Besides, who really wants to be on the same side of the political fence as Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy…or Betty Williams?
Betty Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for creating a group that helped initiate peace talks in Northern Ireland. This week, she was the keynote speaker at The International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas. According to the Dallas Morning News, during her speech she told the thousand or so attendees, “Right now, I could kill George Bush.” The paper said she went on to demand his impeachment since “the Muslim world right now is suffering beyond belief” as a result of this administration’s foreign policy.
What a woman of peace. That’s some “peace conference.”
I’m not sure what would happen if an American traveled to Northern Ireland and expressed a desire to kill Mary McAleese, the current President of Ireland. I doubt that such an opinion would be met with cheers and a standing ovation, as was reported had occurred when the Nobel laureate said what she said in Dallas.
And when we tracked Betty Williams down and put her on my radio show, I was shocked to hear her claim that any published report that quoted her as saying, “Right now, I could kill George Bush” was lying. I reminded her that according to numerous published reports, she used the exact same phrase in a July 24, 2006 speech to schoolchildren at the Brisbane City Hall. At that point in the interview, she sounded totally defeated and said she not only “regretted” saying it, when I asked her if she was sorry for saying it, she said she was. In fact, the Dallas Morning News sent me the audio of the speech which confirms their reporting of Ms. Williams comments about the president.
You can hear my interview with this awful woman at www.mikeonline.com.
People like Betty Williams and Michael Moore and Nancy Pelosi and Keith Olbermann and so many others on the left have made it quite clear what they think of George W. Bush. They teem with hatred and contempt.
They sure don’t need to get any assistance from us. Now, more than ever, we ought to stand behind President Bush.
But if people on the left OR right don’t want to support him these days, I have a heartfelt reminder: November of 2008 will be here soon enough.
Until then, how about getting off the president’s back?
Quotes from Candidate Bush during the 2000 Bush-Gore debate:
“And so I don’t think our troops should be used for what’s called nation-building.”
“Our military is overextended.”
“We’ve got to rebuild our military.”
“I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations.”
“Our military’s meant to fight and win wars. That’s what it’s meant to do. And when it gets overextended, morale drops.”
“The mission needs to be clear and the exit strategy obvious.”
Quotes from President Bush during the 2004 Bush-Kerry debate:
“I don’t believe we ought to have amnesty. I don’t think we ought to reward illegal behavior.”
“I support strict border enforcement programs.”
Other quotes from the 2000 Republican Party platform:
On the military:
“The current [Clinton] adminstration has casually sent America’s armed forces on dozens of missions without clear goals, realizable objectives, FAVORABLE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT or defined exit strategies.” (emphasis mine)
On spending and the operation of government:
“Bureaucracy will be reduced.”
“We intend to downsize this mess.”
On Medicare:
“Improve the programs’s financial stability.”
On security:
“Oppose the creation of a national ID card.”
On the border:
“Harsh penalties against smugglers and those who provide fake documents.”
Shall I go on? I have a lot more quotes. The myth that Bush hasn’t changed, but we conservative have is one of the biggest urban myths ever perpetrated here on FR. In several crucial areas, Bush HAS CHANGED HIS STANCE, especially in the areas of warfighting and amnesty, the two biggest disagreements the base has with him.
Bush has changed, and like one Freeper said, it is not we conservatives who have thrown him under the bus, he’s jumped under there himself. He only had to stick to his platform and to his promises to keep our trust.
Since the POTUS is "term limited", he doesn't have any reason to listen to us.
"Yay term limits!"
NOT
You sure do like to make a lot of declarations.
Bush decided to support Kennedy and the rest of the liberal democrats on the immigration bill. Why doesn’t he go back to them and plead with them for “understanding”? Bush’s loyalties to the conservative cause are suspect. A case of like father, like son, one would guess.
That should be "President Bush".
“name one policy of Bush’s (and, specifics, please) that has changed?”
Simple. He said he’d veto CFR and he signed it.
There, that’s one.
Say what?? Don’t put words in my mouth. And how DARE you malign my service, and for that matter most of the good people here on this forum. You are a single-issue robot and not worth further keystrokes.
What I am is ONE p.o’d conservative.
Watching a bunch of either kids or DUmmie plants here on a so called conservative website constantly bashing Bush JUST like the liberals do. There isn’t an iota of difference between most of you and the DUmmies. Not one iota.
They want impeachment, so do most of you.
They claim Bush’s family should enlist, so do most of you.
Mad? You bet I am.
I’m watching liberals with YOUR help ruin this country.
The fact that none of you phonies are mad just convinces me how right I am.
You’re conservatives? Conservatives do NOT, would NEVER jump on the liberal bandwagon and bash a President like most of you do. NEVER.
Ignore the retread troll
You fell asleep at the bus stop.. the bus just drove off..
He hasn't been on the conservative/republican side from the git go..
The tax breaks was just throwing a bone to the base.. and allowed for a 2nd term..
Bush is a ringer, a shill, like his daddy..
The Bushs are globalists.. meaning enemy's of American sovereignty..
As are, by the way, most democrats.. which is what amnesty is all about..
“Every thread here on FR turns into a Bush bashing immigration thread.”
And every post you put up spews the same drivel ad nausium.
There’s a phrase for someone like you, a flaming **** (think poop) bag on the doorstep of intelligent discourse.
I feel like we have gone back to the Carter administration. The only thing missing is 55 mile per hour speed limits.
True, John Birch was RIGHT..
A RINO is still better than a Dem when it comes to controlling Congress and setting the agenda. I will make an exception in the case of Lincoln Chafee.
I agree with you that posting cops such as you should be "done with all the DUmmie phonies here" as you opined so forcefully.
I'm so embarrassed.....I've been here for nine years and presumably my candid opinions about the president are chopped liver in your eyes.
I guess I should know my place.
Leni
If it was necessary to go to war with Iraq then we should have declared war, fought a war, won a war and moved on.
Our troops are being sacrificed for less than honorable reasons, by less than honorable men, whose actions do not support their words or their oaths of office.
Does anyone believe that the defeat of the amnesty bill was anything but a temporary measure?
The traitors pushing amnesty are working behind our backs with all their might to destroy what we now call the United States of America. Our concerns are of no consequence to them. Though hired to protect the sovereignty of this country, they have other agendas, which they no longer even bother to hide.
If you learned tomorrow that Bush was performing traitorous acts intended to overthrow the constitution, would the fact that he is President of the United States make him more, or less, dangerous to this country? Would your support make you more, or less, of a traitor to this country?
My concerns are National Security and Border Security. Everything concerning me falls under those two banners. I knew what I was getting when I voted twice for him, because I couldn’t consider the alternative. Now President Bush is busy working with the demonrats and rinos and demonrats and rinos will not make the nation safe. I know we can’t go back before 911 but I refuse to follow someone who is heading us toward another 911 at an alarming pace by working with demonrats and rinos. I didn’t leave President Bush, he left me.....if you can’t handle the truth, don’t ask the question.
Double Dittoes, DevSix.
Leni,
This is no brand-new FReeper. Her style reminds me of another open borders, conservative-hating Bushbot that got banned from FR not too long ago.
Absolutely true and the exact reason I have NEVER voted for him in a primary election even though I was on the same ballot with him when he was first elected Governor of Texas. I got to know the man and he certainly IS NOT "conservative" as I define the word.
Conservatives believe in the rule of law and unfailing allegiance to oaths of office in my view. President Bush has proven that he does not do either of those things as have a great many members of congress who regularly vote for legislation they KNOW to be unconstitutional.
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