[jveritas]

I am really disliking many commentators on our side who think that they are smarter and wiser than anyone.

[cherry]

the PTB of the Pub party destroyed it ....

there are people behind the scenes and God only knows what they are doing....

Dole????

what I remember clearly is that back when Reagan was going to win the convention the talk of a vice president was never focused on Bush Sr....Bush Sr was a "surprise" and it seemed to me that the choice of Bush Sr. happend over night ....anyone remember that as I did?

anyway, the Bushs' got the power apparently, but not the guts to do the right thing except I do think Bush the younger has stood up to the Muslims but I wish he had been a little more dramatic and convincing....

remember when he said about 4 days into the Iraq war that the "war" was over????...gesh....

[Razz Barry]

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.

I voted for Bush, as did my friends (both of them), to keep Gore out. Had I known "compassionate conservatism" was socialism, I would have stayed home. Bush's stand on amnesty and his quick jump into bed with Kennedy was enough to turn me against him.

[seoul62]

The way everything is heading, my one question and yes you have to think globally on this one: who is going to preserve WESTERN CIVILIZATION?????? Enough with this angry drama, already./Just Asking - seoul62.......

[ColdSteelTalon]

In a word Bush sold conservatives especially the evangelical ones down the river.

He was for the so called assult weapons ban. But Congress saved that one for him.

He has not done the right thing and tried to end the income tax but he and his cronies in washington actually support it.

We have consistently lost our freedoms and it does not matter who is in office. There is not a dimes worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. And the Republicans have ignored their conservative base, except when election time rolls around.

I will never vote for a Bush again. And unless the Republican party gets back to its conservative roots. I am going 3rd party libertarian all the way. At least they want to get rid of the income tax, and they are sincere about it.

[sitetest]

Mr. Bush did a pretty good job of helping along the cause of destroying the party. Although others certainly helped, he should bear the brunt of the blame.

[kjam22]

No .... Rush Limbaugh did

[dragnet2]

The party has lost exactly one national cycle in the last four. I don't consider them dead

Wait till this up coming election. The Republicans are going to be beat like a drum.

The Republican establishment learned nothing in regards to the 2006 election disaster.

The Democrats have much to thank Bush for.

Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents in American history, and his legacy will be well deserved.

[Tribune7]

That’s a good point. The GOP congress did evolve to hackdom by 2006.

[Galactica]

Republicans fear not....we are still strong. John McCain nor Huckabee can destroy our party. George Bush either. I am proud to be Republican.

[Poincare]

The Bush tax cuts made the tax schedules MORE PROGRESSIVE by reducing the percentage that low and middle income earners paid more than the reduction for the higher earners. There are now more voters who pay no taxes and will vote for panderers offering programs that they won’t have to contribute to.

Watch how when the Bush tax cuts expire the rate for the “rich” will be increased but the rates for the low earners will not.

This not only destroys the GOP, but also our republic.

[Peter W. Kessler]

He damaged it.

McCain will destroy it.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

How is eventual full implementation of the Fairness Doctrine, so that the conservative point-of-view is completely shut out of legal existence for the long-term and allowing both amnesty for illegal immigrants “to the max” and allowing illegals the right to vote in all future U.S. elections all supposed to truly help U.S. conservatism (never mind the entire Republican Party) eventually make a successful comeback sometime in the future throughout the U.S.?

[x]

The Republican Party isn't dead yet. Most likely it will rebound at some point.

If it doesn't, the responsibility is Bush's. Congress did appropriate too much, but he didn't have to sign those budgets.

Running as a "center-right" candidate shouldn't have meant not caring about budgets and overspending. It didn't with Eisenhower.

Maybe turning a blind eye to overspending was the price of getting support on social issues, but the war erased any gains the party might have made.

Peggy's more right than Morrissey.

[Zack Attack]

Dubya is only part of it. The establishment got PO’d when the people elected Ronaldus Magnus in 1980 and vowed not to let such a thing happen again.