Hugh Hewitt MEGA PING!!
Posted on 09/17/2003 1:44:36 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
A picture hangs on my office wall that reminds of the glory years of the Reagan Revolution. It shows the White House team entry in the D.C. Nike Challenge from 1985. The six participants include Dick Hauser, then Deputy Counsel in the White House; John Roberts – newly confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then a young White House lawyer; and me, also a young White House lawyer. The captain of the "White House V-toes" was Pat Buchanan, at the time the Gipper's communications director.
Whenever a visitor's eye turns to the picture, I point to Pat and say, there's the man who put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. Only the politically inclined get it: Pat Buchanan's primary challenge to President George H.W. Bush in 1992 bled the incumbent and opened the door to Perot. Perot, of course, put Clinton in the White House, and Clinton put those justices on the highest court.
Buchanan fans sputter a lot when they hear this recounting of history, and many splendid arguments follow. They protest too much, the Pat people do, because of the impulse to disguise guilt with vigorous and emphatic denunciations. Facts, to quote Reagan quoting Lenin, however, are stubborn things. Buchanan wrought what he wrought, and honest accounting requires that the two Clinton appointees be put credited to Pat's legacy ledger. So much for the pro-life platform upon which Pat has long stood. There is no doubt that he sincerely believes in the platform – but there is overwhelming evidence that the unborn would have been far better off had Pat never launched a public career.
This history becomes relevant as the California recall vote draws near. Like Pat, Tom McClintock is a smart, talented and principled public man. Like Pat, Tom is supported by a legion of dedicated, energetic activists. Like the Buchanan campaign of 1992, the McClintock campaign of 2003 thinks it has momentum, a mirage created wholly by an elite media eager to wound a Republican front-runner. A decade ago, that front-runner was President Bush; these days it is Arnold.
And like the Buchanan campaign of 1992, the McClintock campaign of 2003 is playing the role of unwitting pawn of the Democrats to a perfection.
It will not be clear for some years what the real costs of the McClintock candidacy will be. The GOP is already damaged in California, but the real disaster will arrive only if Cruz Bustamante replaces Gray Davis, winning the second part of the California recall with a margin less than the total number of votes garnered by McClintock.
The die-hards ought to think about Breyer and Ginsburg as they launch rhetorical salvo after rhetorical salvo at Arnold. These attacks are very similar in tone and detail to those hurled by the Buchananites against the elder Bush in 1992. Whether they will result in the declaration as unconstitutional of such laws as a ban on partial-birth abortion remains to be seen, but Pat Buchanan clearly didn't set out to destroy such protections with his candidacy of 1992.
But he did. What will the McClintock ledger show a decade hence?
The worst campaign ever? Bobdole, four years later. Thanks to the GOP for screwing conservatives and foisting those to yutzes on them.
Blame the defenders of conservative principles while heaping glory on the compromisers of it.
Such illogic is breathtaking in its boldness.
I'm in awe.
*shudder*
As the enviro-purists found out, you either choose the lesser of two evils, or you wind up with the greater. Refusing to vote for 'that corporate sellout' Gore allowed their antichrist into office. Around election time, they said that there was no difference between the two, so they had to vote their conscience and support Nader. I doubt they feel that was such a hot idea these days.
The only way to change is for conservatives to get together behind the conservative candidates completely; the moderates are not enough. Now, I know what you would say: the liberal dems would wind up winning. But losing may be the only way to turn the GOP to the right.
Otherwise, if the Conservatives continually roll over and elect the moderates, the GOP has no incenive to move to the right. And the country winds up with policies that are only marginally (if at all) different from those of the left.
Tell the GOP: elect the Conservatives, or watch from the sidelines.
"...Whenever a visitor's eye turns to the picture, I point to Pat and say, there's the man who put Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court..Only the politically inclined get it: Pat Buchanan's primary challenge to President George H.W. Bush in 1992 bled the incumbent and opened the door to Perot. Perot, of course, put Clinton in the White House, and Clinton put those justices on the highest court...
...The die-hards ought to think about Breyer and Ginsburg as they launch rhetorical salvo after rhetorical salvo at Arnold. These attacks are very similar in tone and detail to those hurled by the Buchananites against the elder Bush in 1992. Whether they will result in the declaration as unconstitutional of such laws as a ban on partial-birth abortion remains to be seen, but Pat Buchanan clearly didn't set out to destroy such protections with his candidacy of 1992.
But he did." - Hugh Hewitt
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If you listen to Hugh Hewitt, or read his WND commentaries,
this PING list is for YOU!
Please post your comments, and BUMP!
(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know)
Ah, tailored principles.
This is getting downright sophisticated.
Quote:
The percentage of registered Republicans has little to do with it. It appears to me - a non-Californian - that if you add the numbers, Schwarzenegger plus McC bests Cruz. But the ones who are going to wind up sucking it up are the principled conservatives who will get stuck with either Schwarzenegger or Cruz. In either case, California gets a liberal, and the GOP has either a whipping boy if Arnold loses, or no incentive to change if Arnold wins. And Conservatives take it in the shorts again.
And California cements its status as one of the three dumbest states in the union.
I see Hugh is hitting his mark.
Tis an evil dart...
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