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?
Are you willing, in your offendedness, to dump our military men and women under the bus, too? That's exactly what you're doing when you abandon the President on Iraq, because he pi$$ed you off on Immigration.
Have done no such thing - Calling others out for holding R. Reagan to one standard while GWB to another is not being intellectually dishonest in the least. It is pointing out the hypocrisy within a segment of our base.
Yes, the immigration issue was at a much more manageable level during R. Reagan's years. He should have addressed it via a comprehensive approach....Not simply given amnesty and pushed the problem down the road. He should have addressed the border, addressed the terribly flawed visa programs, etc, etc. He did not.
Ditto that for Soc Sec. He should not have raised FICA taxes on all American's (thus burdening yet another generation to the biggest wealth stealing scheme ever created).
But that he did such things doesn't mean he isn't a "true conservative".....Like some want to suggest about GWB over a number of issues.
Again, R. Reagan increased FICA taxes and gave full amnesty while being in charge of the Senate by large numbers.
"Hey he tried to kill my Dad" I knew we were screwed from that moment.
BS. We aren't screwed at all. Again, what we have accomplished to date is utterly amazing by any and all reasonable measures. We have removed two brutal regimes (with very low casualty figures...compared to what all the wargammers were suggesting. WAY LOWER). We have helped create the atmosphere for the values of freedom and self-worth (our two biggest allies long-term).
We have helped create the atmosphere (with time) that will likely see a self-deporation away from radical Islam (and perhaps Islam itself - Where freedom comes the truth will follow ).
We have killed or captured over 3/4 of AQ's original leadership, ditto that percentage of their less effective replacements.....We are on the offensive throughout the ME, SE Asia and the Horn of Africa....
No, we are far from screwed....We are winning and systematically leaving our enemies worse off (and don't give me any BS about some "intelligence" report...You don't know d*ck if you don't know what that is all about).
Yes....thanks for posting this.
Oh my, SO well said!!
Have ya’ll seen this article?
Unfortunantely I believe many are falling for the exact thing you are saying. They don’t realize the danger the country will be in if any of the democrats and especially Hillary gets elected in 2008. I garantee you they wished president Bush were back in office
Idiotic! Our troops were high in the sky dropping bombs from fighter planes. Not even close as a comparison to Iraq.
I couldn’t be more disappointed in your self-serving analysis . . . I also don’t know how you maintained a straight face when you typed that “. . . (At FR) the President is supported on points of agreement” . . . Did you happen to read most of the posts on this thread.
REALITY CHECK:
OVER 70% OF REPUBLICANS SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH (even the new, just released today, AP/IPSOS REID PRO-DEMOCRAT poll verifies this level of support) which makes the position of the majority posting on this thread the EXCEPTION rather than the rule!
What you meant to say; that is if you are honest, is that the congress is generous with other peoples money. The president can not spend any money and it does not do him any good if the majority in Congress vote for the spending bill as a veto can be overridden
I think it is the other way around, President Bush abandoned Conservatives.
Nothing in my post that I haven't stated for some time now.
The president has been terrible at defending himself and many conservatives have simply stopped doing so.
There are huge differences of opinion on Mc/Feingold and Illegal Amnesty.
And I would think the above quote is what I'd think someone would want to hear. He's not abandoned.
Yep, they’re letting their ‘feelings’ cloud their judgement; something they detest when done by liberals.
Also, I remember being at college on September 12, 2001 and our professor made us all go to the auditorium to watch TV as Bush had a prayer service. At the prayer service he had a TOWEL headed muslim preaching at us. I just left the auditorium. Bush made me sick that day.
He makes me sick with the way he sold us out to China and the way he let 20 millions illegals break into the USA.
Also, Bush rebuilt the Clintons and aimed Hillary right at us again for another 8 years of hell.
No he’s not abandoned; unfortunately, many among the conservative ‘intelligentsia’ and the Freeper ‘elitists’ want to project their fantasies (on abandonment and other issues) as fact.
[I guess the ‘tone’ of your comment disappointed me more than anything else . . . As though on the MAJOR issues of our time, President Bush hasn’t been battling for and with us every step of the way . . . and certainly more so than any contemporary president, including Reagan.]
“At the prayer service he had a TOWEL headed muslim preaching at us”
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WOW . . . This is what passes for reasoned analysis at FR these days?!
I didn't say that it was Governments job to rescue people from their own sins. But when Government sets itself up as the deliverer then they need to be effective at it. FEMA is a complete disaster.
Yes W should of managed major moves by all Departments in HIS Administration - that is called leadership. Gonzales, Chertoff, Casey, Rummy, Brown, Fleischer, Meirs - a world class set of clowns. When you pick managers their faults are your faults. He continues to ignore his one Constitutional duty in this mess and that is to secure the borders. In addition, he is actively giving away our sovereignty to the NAU.
You may not realize it yet but we are screwed. The WOT will go on for years with lawyers running it to only small results. Name me one solid example of where winning hearts and minds has been successful. For the most part Muslims and Arabs only respond to power. It is no sin to lie to an infidel they do it daily - everywhere. Our strategic approach, run by Bush, in Iraq is painful evidence that he doesn't understand that. His alcoholic Christan guilt controls his actions more than anything.
One last word on Reagan. He never insulted or fractured the base - even when he was a Democrat.
Not really - they were in harm's way. Again, since we had troops that were in harm's way, did you give undying support to Bill Clinton?
Well put. ExACTly.
DD, I think there’s something else going on here, too. We are at the time when our very system demands we shift our loyalties to a Thompson, Hunter, Tancredo, Huckabee, etc.
They MUST increase and he MUST decrease. It is natural to analyze his contributions and his failures in determining what one wants in a future candidate.
The president’s greatest legacy will be the Scotus he gave us, imho.
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