George Bush, meet John Major

The Guardian ^

[UKrepublican]

George Bush, meet John Major
The string of Republican scandals and sense of political drift is reminiscent of the Conservative party's sleazy meltdown in the 1990s.
Ewen MacAskill
August 30, 2007 11:00 AM | Printable version

Not many people know, or at least remember this, but my Guardian colleague Mike White was mainly responsible for the string of sex and financial scandals that helped bring down John Major's government.

At the 1993 Conservative party conference, Tim Collins - then a very young and inexperienced press officer before going on to become an MP - was briefing ahead of the prime minister's speech. It was a tame speech but it spoke about "back to basics". Mike White asked if that meant morality. It was obvious that Collins had not thought about it, and gave a reply that basically amounted to "Why not?". That was it: journalists briefed their editors that Major was about to embark on a moral crusade. When the speech was delivered, there was no mention of crusades, moral or otherwise. But, having sold the story of a moral crusade, almost everyone wrote it anyway.

It might seem a trivial story but it was one with enormous repercussions, opening the way for journalists to investigate the personal lives of Conservative members of parliament. Story after story followed, almost all of them true: extra-marital sex, gay affairs, an auto-erotic exercise gone wrong, corrupt "cash for questions", the Saudi "sword of truth" affair. Every time that John Major was about to make a speech or launch a new initiative, another scandal would break. The political journalists loved it, claiming they were exposing the hypocrisy of MPs, measuring them against the back to basics campaign.

[UKrepublican]

UK Ping list - if you would like on or off, freepmail me.

[UKrepublican]

PING

[roses of sharon]

Oh good grief, the GOP had nothing to do with a pervert in the bathroom, nor do the NRA or Farm Council whose boards Craig sits.

Kick him out, and be done with it, as any good citizen org would do in finding out a member was a pervert, lol.

[donna]

Isn’t this different because the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch are separate but equal branches of the federal government?

[LibLieSlayer]

American Republicans have had two limp-wrists outed and we are a party of scandal, while dims are ALL murderers, thieves, communists, socialists, racists and evil to their core... but it is the Republican Party... the Party which demands deviants resign from office... it is this Party that is labeled the “Culture of Corruption”... all the while a deviant named Barney Frank, a gay dim Congressman that along with his live-in lover, ran a male prostitution ring out of the basement of his Georgetown apartment. He didn't even apologize for it!!! My head hurts!

LLS

[bilhosty]

It’s more like Bush 41. He wont do anything and he does not have a program he does not stand for anything outside of foreign affairs. He cannot defend himself. He is the Brezhnev of the revolution of ‘94 just like his father was the Brezhnev of the Reagan revolution. Just a passive do nothing country clubber, no vision, no imagination, no creativity no nothing. A real no whereman who has left the country drift. God help anybody stupid enough to put in another son of a Bush.

[UKrepublican]

There’s an account waiting for you in DU land.

[LibLieSlayer]

I agree with UK.

LLS

[Dave Elias]

How can you be a UK republican?

Kingdom and Republic are kind of mutually exclusive.

[UKrepublican]

Think again dave.

The ‘republican’ is reference to my support of the Republicans in the US - not me being a ‘Republican’ although I do favour the abolition of the monarchy.

[Cyber Liberty]

Everybody wishes we had a Prime Minister and Britain's parliamentary system, where they can just have a vote of "No Confidence" whenever they want, and call an election.

Tough. They have to wait until next year to give Bush the boot.

[Cyber Liberty]

What was that all about?

[MNJohnnie]

Utterly moronic assesement of Bush. Just without any intellectual merit at all.

With his two Supreme Court Justices Bush has done more for the Conservative Movement then all the Know Nothing whiners who hang out on this website screaming their emotion based drivel about him combined will EVER do

[bilhosty]

No, it is not moronic. Bush has no program. It is true that he has given us two excellent Supreme Court Justices. But it is also true that there is no domestic agenda or set of programs, His only agenda and policy is to to spend money and let in illegals. He has no real philosophy and just lets problems pass. He does not go before Congress and say, “here is my program let us pass it” and then fight for it. He does not go over the heads of the politicians and take a case to the people (he has no case). He is just letting the country drift like his father did. It is no longer good enough just to have Supreme Court picks to stop lib judges.

You have to present an agenda. Thanks to his complete lack of vision the only alternative we have to socialized medicine is the usual country club response of doing nothing. Well eventually doing nothing will no longer be good enough and something will have to be done. Because, they do not have an alternative we will have to suddenly pass socialized medicine(it will be the GOP count on it). Just like they just sat and dickered while illegals entered. They did not want to offend anyone so when something has to be done they just triangulate as always and then let them all in. No that is not good enough anymore.

We have to have a vision and a program and not just a set of attitudes.We have to have some willingness to go out and defend those ideas. we have to try to change the political structure to benefit us(you know deal with the MSM instead of letting it deal with us.) We need creativity, imagination a strong interest in policy and the gumption to get it done. We need to deal with health care, excessive spending, ending affirmitive action, media bias, alternative energy and excessive immigration. Our leaders have to see the next generation instead of just the next election and just taking positions.

[MNJohnnie]

That the ticket, cling to your ignorance and your hate.

[mrsmel]

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that President Bush is “do-nothing” in as far as he has handled an unprecedented attack on our national security and for once put truly conservative constructionist judges on the Supreme Court, amongst other things, I agree with your overall principles. The Republican party led by President Bush has either just fallen down on the job, or is doing some backroom wheeling and dealing regarding illegal immigration, for one thing-at any rate, they’re not answering to the American people.

I voted for President Bush twice, and if I had only the same choices as were presented in the last election, I would have to vote for him again, especially with the war ongoing. But we the people have GOT to be more proactive in holding his feet and epsecially those of Republicans in Congress, to the fire on immigration especially. If we’re not making them understand by writing, etc, (and not just once in a while-we have to keep it up-they have short memories and they think-know?-that we do too), what incentive, in today’s political game, do they have for listening to us instead of lobbyists and big business cronies?They have got to remember, always, that no matter how powerful they may become in Congress, no matter what deals they can make behind our backs, WE can take that power away. WE are their bottom line.

[bilhosty]

he has indeed not been a do nothing in foreign policy. For better or worse he is active. My problem is his domestic side or almost complete lack of it. He is his fathers son. I will say this about his father it took him one term to accomplish what his son did in two terms (domestically only) nothing.