Activists on right fear waning influence

The Washington Times ^ | May 21, 2003 | Ralph Hallow

[TBP]

Conservative activists fear that they are not exercising as much influence on the Bush White House as they did in previous Republican presidencies.

In a memo to hundreds of fellow conservatives, a former Reagan administration official says traditional views are being edged out by a neoconservative "national greatness" ideology that accepts big government and advocates interventionist foreign policy.

[TBP]

Sometimes voting for a third party is how you keep pressure on Republicans. If out-and-out liberal Republicans lose because of conservative third-party candidates, that presses the Republicans to move back to the right.

[TBP]

neoconservative dreams of empire

A little dramatic, don't you think?

No, I think it's pretty close to accurate.

[LibKill]

I find the unstopped growth of government very troublesome. Rush dealt with this subject quite a bit last week.

Where is the limit on government?

[mikenola]

I agree, Bush can't get a conservative agenda put through overnight. It wouldn't be palatable politically to suddenly dissolve Dept. of Education, HUD, EPA, (my secret dream) and replace the graduated income tax with something more fair.

The best, repeat, best thing we can do to support Bush in advancing a conservative agenda, is to lobby our representatives to gets Bush's judicial nominees put through. If the Republicans have to use the "nuclear option" so be it.

With strict constitutionalist, non-activist jurists on the federal bench, and hopefully on the SCOTUS, the public interest conservative law firms and private citizens can start deconstructing the welfare state. And that will outlive Bush's term in office, even if Hillary is elected in 08. That's what will start getting back to limited government. IMO.

[mikenola]

I'd recommend reading Victor Hanson's article A Funny Sort of Empire

[TBP]

But what if he acts like his father and tries to fill the Supreme Court with justices who are not limited=government constitutionalists. Remember, Stevens, Souter, O'Connor, and in an earlier day Earl Warren and William Brennan were all Republican appointees.

[The Coopster]

Nobody will do anything. They'll just sit around here and bitch about what a traitor Bush is, and then balls it up for the right by voting for another lame 3rd part candidate.

[DPB101]

(What if Bush) tries to fill the Supreme Court with justices who are not limited=government constitutionalists.

For that to be a possibility one must assume the fierce liberal opposition to Miguel Estrada, Priscilla Owens, Charles Pickering and D. Brooks Smith is a con. Bush is working with the left and the nominees to fool us into thinking they are all conservatives.

[katana]

Your point is very well taken. We have an incumbent RINO governor who ran last year against a very liberal democrat ex-county commissioner. Having dealt in the past with a democrat administration I know first hand the kinds of genuinely whacko people the guy would have brought into every level of State government. I didn't want to take a chance that he could get in so held my nose and voted for the RINO. I've had second thoughts about that vote ever since. Fortunately, I'll have a genuine conservative to support through the primaries next time.

[mikenola]

My favorite bs government program , The Legal Services Corporation, created by a Republican no less.

Tricky Dick was stretching the "general welfare" clause a bit with this one don't you think?

[TBP]

Not necessarily. Republicans tend to learn the wrong lessons from things. If the dumbbell Republicans in Congress don't manage to break the filibusters on Estrada and Owen (a Hispanic guy and a woman. Hmmmmm.) then Bush will undoubtedly conclude that only guys like Souter are the only ones who can get confirmed.

Remember, it was a Republican administration that gave us Erl Warren and William Brennan. Republicans gave us Souter, Stevens, and so many other illustrious additions to the Extreme Court. W himself made four appointments to the Texas Supreme Court as governor and three of them were non-pro-lifers. One of those, Al Gonzalez, is now the White House Counsel and is being touted as Bush's first Supreme Court appointment.

Perhaps what he ought to do is withdraw Estrada and Owen from Appeals Court consideration and instead nominate them for the Supreme Court. (Boy, would that give Tommy Boy and the rest of those bozos a heart attack!)

[Incorrigible]

[DPB101]

My favorite bs government program , The Legal Services Corporation, created by a Republican no less.

Comparisons of what Republicans and Democrats have done over the last 70 years are hugely misleading.

Sam Rayburn was Speaker of the House of Representatives for 20 years. Under Carter, Democrats had more of a majority in the House than the GOP had seats. Yeah, Nixon signed a lot of horrible bills. But the country was left wing--Democrats beat Republicans two to one in voter registration. The Congress was crawling with Rats. Rats ran the media. Rats ran everything but the Oval office (Rats had infested and been nesting in Federal agencies since FDR). Liberalism was popular.

The only time between 1932 and 2003, the GOP had the power Democrats consistently enjoyed was 1953-1954.

Republicans have been reacting all my life. Until this year. Finally they are setting the agenda. And some Republicans complain because it is not enough.