Posted on 01/25/2008 7:58:07 AM PST by jdm
Peggy Noonan aims her considerable cannon at George Bush this morning in the Wall Street Journal in the middle of her analysis of the primaries. She fingers him as the main culprit in the destruction of the Republican Party, discounting other and perhaps better causes and engaging in just a little hyperbole:
On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.
Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.
And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.
I love Peggy Noonan's commentary, but this is a little over the top. The party has lost exactly one national cycle in the last four. I don't consider them dead after a single setback, and anyone who does appears more interested in garnering attention than in providing trenchant analysis.
It doesn't mean we don't have trouble, but Noonan's wrong to lay the whole thing on Bush. While it's true that he hasn't provided much in the way of fiscal discipline, he didn't run for office as a Steve Forbes conservative, either. He spoke of compassionate conservatism, a code for big-government approaches for center-right policies, and he delivered. Bush talked about working on bipartisan solutions to national issues, and he pretty much did that before the Iraq war turned sour. Republicans elected Bush knowing what they were going to get, and Noonan can't seriously claim shock over the result.
The seeds of Republican discontent took root in Congress, not the executive. It was the succession of Republican Congresses that refused to cut spending, and instead blew wads of cash on non-defense discretionary spending. Bush led in some of these efforts, but he didn't multiply pork exponentially; that came from House and Senate Republicans. He didn't climb into bed with K Street, either -- that project started before Bush ever arrived at the White House with Tom DeLay and others.
It may be fashionable for Republicans to cast all blame on the President, but that falsely absolves those who created the problems that plague us at the moment. It may also sound rhetorically spectacular to declare the party "destroyed" by having its constituent coalitions debate about its direction, but it's both inaccurate and hyperbolic. It's not unusual for parties to have these debates -- and maybe if we'd had it in 2000, we would have elevated leaders more supportive of traditional Republican fiscal discipline rather than just blindly supported the people who threw that legacy in the wastebin.
Oh, well, at least he didn't ruin his second term! Wow, thank goodness, because there's a list of accomplishments a mile long from that second term. I mean, gosh, I suppose that he otherwise couldn't have tried to foist amnesty on us. Dude, thank God that he didn't actually try to do something as President. I was worried there for a second.
Peggy Noonan was a huge Bush supporter, that is until she surrendered her job and the WSJ to volunteer as a speech writer for Bush and got turned down. She has been in a snit ever since.
Bush was perfectly right to turn down Noonan. Her flowery, stilted style (nice alliteration, don’t you think?)would have made Bush sound silly. He has enough trouble with his plain talk.
The more I think about this, the more I can't believe that you're serious. You are advocating for a President to back off any topic that might be unpopular. That's crazy.
If Bush would have worked half as hard on Social Security as he did on that immigration reform--if he would have seriously twisted arms--then he might have got something accomplished. Even if it would have cost some people their seats, and I'm not convinced it would have, it would have been worth it because it would have been done. Private accounts would have been the status quo for at least three years (Bush could veto any attempts to abolish private accounts for the rest of his term), and by that time, it would be pretty much set.
Bush was weak on that one. Among many.
Close, but he had plenty of help going back to his father and the Republican members of both houses of Congress.
17% showing in SC?
If we insist on forwarding, and voting for, candidates because they are less liberal than the others we don't have much chance at recovery.
If the GOP continues with it's "don't offend the opposition" policies it will continue as well with it's "it's only a flesh wound" performances.
If the GOP continues with it's ill conceived outreach to democrat dominated interest groups - if the party continues to muddy it's message and act without conviction...
We ARE doomed - No; the GOP is doomed.
I’m not a Bush fan, but he did show remarkable courage in persuing the war on terror.
There would be no Republican party at all had the terrorists been encouraged to persue further attacks on American soil.
Did he have to sign all those spending bills? NO.
Is the republican party dead because of spending bills? NO.
The GOP has been weakened because the GOP failed to counter the constant barage of anti-war news that the MSM dished out. Bush is partially responsible, but so is everyone else in Congress.
Dubya is my man, but he devastated the party by not adequately explaining and defending his actions.
This allowed his opponents, our opponents, the fill the void and mischaracterize his motives, and his job.
I feel betrayted by Bush... absolutely.
His spending, his illegal alien stance, his upcoming gun grab.
I think the dems will hold up the left leaning Bush stances as a way to move the goal posts on conservatism.
Yes, I think ‘compassionate conservatism’ is nothing more than sugar coated liberalism.
That’s my $0.02, YMMV
The bottom line is,
Republicans believe in borrowing and spending us into bankruptcy.
DemocRats believe in taxing, borrowing and spending us into bankruptcy, faster.
We are seriously between a rock and hard place.
I see that my comments are now being reviewed by big brother before they post to this thread. The Moderator of this thread is a disgrace to freerepublic.
Did Nixon destroy the Republican party? Not any more than Truman destroyed the Democrat party and Truman’s approval ratings were lower than Bush.
I think everyone’s mind can handle it. I spelled it out at the very end: paper tiger or strong horse?
Osama has made it rather clear.
People are choosing to be in denial about it.
I do love Alan Keyes though.
In January 1996 Dole was the Senate Majority Leader and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Dole convinced Speaker Gingrich to fold up the federal government shutdown stalemate with President Clinton and allow Dole to lead the GOP via his presidential campaign.
Remember, the 1994 Contract with America was a House election program. The GOP Senate did NOT sign on to the program and reluctantly followed Gingrich's lead while watering down each and every one of the Contract's provisions.
Gingrich was left with the choice of fighting Clinton and the media by himself with Candidate Dole seeking a different path from the House GOP or deferring to Dole's presidential campaign and resuming the conservative battle together with his friend Trent Lott to keep President Dole honest. Gingrich made the wrong choice.
We all remember what happened. The conservative House leadership lost some of their ability to control their more moderate members. Dole lost. Lott built his own voice separate from the House. And with no help from Lott & the GOP Senate and a Clinton veto looming on all conservative issues, Gingrich, Armey & DeLay focused much of their efforts on the growing Clinton scandals.
Gingrich was able to maintain order within the House even during the Clinton impeachment. But after the Senate RINOs failed to do their duty and convict Clinton, the House moderates began feeling their oats.
Then, the impact of the missing FBI files took effect. Allegations of marital affairs Gingrich and Hyde took their toll. Seeing his conservative House coaliton dissipate and Lott's desire to set on a different path, Gingrich stepped down as Speaker. Then his presumed successor, Bob Livingston from Louisiana, was also taken out by a marital affair.
The GOP was then stuck with the lackluster Dennis Hastert as Speaker to help moderate Armey & DeLay. The muzzling of conservative GOP leadership in Congress was calculated to appear less confrontational after failing to take out Bill Clinton. It also helped to clear the agenda of party leadership for the 2000 GOP presidential candidates. And in 2000, conservatives settled for the "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush. Many conservatives stayed home, nearly costing Bush the presidency and actually losing GOP control of the Senate in 2000.
To be fair, I thank God everyday for W's leadership in dealing with 911. But Bush also squandered the opportunity to push the party and country to the right following that horrible event. The GOP regained control of the Senate in 2002, but based solely on national security concerns, not conservative social and economic principles. Meanwhile, the House drifted further to the center.
Conservative fears of repeating Florida 2000 helped Bush win reelection in 2004, despite the party's overall drift to the center. By now, any conservative elements in the House and Senate were in complete retreat. The moderates ruled the roost in both houses. RINO defections on the Iraq war, wasteful earmarks and ethics scandals were now front and center for the GOP. The only conservative victories of 2005-06 were the confirmations of Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court. And it took a battle to defeat Bush on his nomination of Harriet Miers to do it.
By Fall 2006 conservatives had become utterly disheartened. Attempts to make the Bush tax cuts permanent stalled, the continued treachery of Arlen Spector, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and the Gang of 14, increased dissatisfaction with George Bush and the Miers nomination debacle all caused conservatives to stay home in November 2006. And the GOP lost both the House and Senate.
Occasionally, the conservative movement can still rise up. The reaction to the Amnesty bill was encouraging. But other than that, conservatives have again been wandering in the wilderness. GOP moderates and RINO's have been resistant to allowing a conservative to assume leadership in Congress. And any potential conservative congressional leader has held back in part due to the extremely early start of the 2008 presidential race.
And what did conservatives get for 2008 candidates?
No Reagan conservatives who possess all three legs of the coalition stool - strong national defense, social conservatism, economic conservatism.
Nope. Instead, we got Rudy Giuliani. An autocrat who has little affection for social conservatives, but pledged to nominate strict construction judges. Whoopee!
We got John McCain. An angry RINO maverick who enjoys flouting social and economic conservatives AND even the GOP establishment to gain favor and positive reviews from the liberal media.
We got Mitt Romey, an uber-wealthy GOP establishment moderate. At least Romney panders to social and economic conservatives with recently discovered flip-flopped positons on issues of importance to those two factions.
We got Ron Paul, a true blue, libertarian nutbag. Paul has a few economic bona fides that have pulled away a few non-nut job libertarians. But I'm sorry, Dr. Paul is a kook.
We got Mike Huckabee - the Dope from Hope, part II. While he is just as manipulative as Bill Clinton, Huckabee is nowhere near as smart.
And we got the Obscure 4 - Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, Tommy Thompson & Duncan Hunter. Tancredo & Keyes are single issue candidates. Tommy & Dunc are well-rounded politicians (especially Hunter), but they lacked the ability to have broad nationwide appeal.
Seeing this morass of blech, Fred Thompson entered the fray expecting to be the saviour of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Fred should have been that candidate.
Unfortunately, Dr. James Dobson and a few evangelical leaders decided to cut off their nose to spite their face. You see, Fred's not a Bible thumper, but neither was Ronald Reagan. Fred is a federalist. Fred refused to kiss Dobson's ring of evangelical purity. Fred also decided to skip the barely relevant Values Voter debate.
Flim Flam Huckabee seized on that opportunity. Hucakbee played Dobson into thinking that Dobson could play kingmaker. A handful of evangelical leaders blindly pushed Huckabee as a viable conservative. The media, who knows a GOP loser when they see one, helped fan the flames of Huckabee's support. For a time, the scheme worked. Huckabee won Iowa, but eventually the truth of Huckabee's Christian Socialism became evident to most conservatives.
But the damage had been done. Social conservatives were now spilt. Some had been taken in by Huckabee's class warfare. Some had been taken in by the media's false depiction of Fred as a lazy campaigner and settled for Romney, Rudy or, worse, McCain.
Added into this deceptive mix was the ability of independents and Democrats to particpate in and distort the Iowa, New Hampshire & South Carolina Republican primaries. Media darling McCain was back! McCain - the new Comeback Kid - was ready to lead....the GOP down to defeat. Meanwhile, Fred's race and the ability for the GOP to unify behind a Reaganesque conservative died.
At best, the GOP could still end up with a Bush-lite nominee like Mitt Romney. I think he will at least pretend to care about conservative ideals from his Country Club wing of the party.
At worst, the GOP could end up with John McCain. McCain, the perennial thorn in the GOP's side who was once touted as a possible VP running mate for John Kerry!
Yes, it was Bob Dole who set conservatives off on their road to destruction, but it was Dr. James Dobson who has given the GOP this Dobson's Choice.
I don't think anyone knew he was going to suck up to Ted Kennedy, double the Dept of Indoctrination and generally explode the budget himself. To be sure, he was wishywashy on the border issue, but he didn't have to attempt aggressively to undermine his own nation's sovereignty. Sorry but Noonan is a lot closer to the truth than Morissey.
Bull. Any President who has a majority in Congress has an absolute duty to exercise leadeship with the legislature. Failure to do this is inexcusable. Bush was nothing short of derelict in his responsibility to manage his own party majority in Congress, unless you admit that they were doing his wishes after all, in which case the argument eats itself.
Amen, and it’s quite probable she wouldn’t be saying this if she had been hired as his speech writer,as it has been said that she had expected.
I’m just thankful we aren’t living with the “destruction” of our gov’t that an Al Gore, or John Kerry presidency would have accomplished.
If you recognize that Bush's second Inaugural was basically irrational itself, a bizarre recrudescence of the Wilsonian delusion of 90 years earlier, then Noonan's alarm makes a lot more sense.
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