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?
Do you think it advanced further under Clinton's two terms?
"So don't tell me to just keep electing moderates and everything will be OK."
Put up one single candidate of your brand of conservatism that can be elected...just one.
That individual needs to "do the Reagan" and ignite the hoi polloi into voting for him.
"But I'm getting DARN close to saying to hell with 'moderates' & the consequences be damned.
Throwing in the towel?
That's so...French.
"And once enough people like me bail the GOP"
Don't, vote your integrity...just own up to the consequences.
Didn't Hugh try to shove Dick Riordin down our throats a while back? Get over it!! We're CONSERVATIVES. When Arnold called us, supporters of Prop 54 (racial privacy initiative), "right wing crazies", that was the last straw. If you guys want to kiss RINO butt (really democrat butt), have at it. But as for me, I'd much rather see Bustamante become governor than Schwarzenegger. Bustamante will UNITE Republicans; Schwarzenegger will DESTROY THE CA GOP.
LOL !! Great !! ...
You, and Hugh Hewitt, and William Wallace continue to prove my point.
You all are doing a hackjob on conservatives, without regard to truth whatsoever.
In fact, I endorsed George W. Bush publically many months ago.
So shut up.
Yeah, you're a real fighter.
Keep sliding to the left Luis. I'll stay right here, where I've been for the past quarter century.
Ask Hugh a simple question: If moderate Republicans govern so well, how come California is so socialistic?
Hugh: After 8 years of George Deukmejian (1983-1991) and then 8 years of Pete Wilson (1991-1999) as governors of California, the state is more socialistic than ever!
To put another moderate-Republican into Sacramento is folly! What could Arnold do in a few short years that Deukemejian and Wilson didn't already do?
No! We need a principled "stalwart" conservative-Republican to turn California's socialistic state around.
If moderate Republicans Deukmejian and Wilson (1983-1999) running the state have created the legacy of merely 4 years later (2003), it is absurd to think another moderate republican like Arnold will do any differently.
Hewitt is a contract employee of Salem Broadcasting. Hewitt sells Subarus and life-insurance, cruises with Shakespearian pedants, and other "commodities" to make a living. He is no different than any other "moderate" Republican who shills for gigantic corporate accounts.
He talks like a "frat-boy", and has "frat-boy" inside terms for his friends, a sign of a slow mind, dependent on "jargon" instead of wit or irony!
Hewitt is exactly what sickens the California GOP. He carries water for the "corporate socialist" establishment, and turns his wrath against genuine precinct-level grass root stalwart Republicans.
Arnold is a celebrity male-beauty pageant winner who married into the Kennedy clan. Some "Horatio Alger" mythology there!
McClintock is the real ***king thing!
I know a poseur when I see one. Both Arnold and Hewitt are poseurs. The former a "male beuty pageant" winner who calls it a team-sport; the later a "frat-boy" RINO who pretends to be an intellectual.
Hewitt is doing more damage to the Republic of California than he admits.
Put another "moderate Republican" in the governorship, and California will not reverse it's socialistic slide.
Deukmejian and Wilson did nothing lasting to keep California from sinking into the Socialist Sea! Arnold will do nothing lasting either!
Hewitt is a "hidden socialist" or else he would support McClintock!"hidden socialist".
Put some salt in your thinking, Hugh!
Go back and read it--not that it is worth reading for any point other than to identify who it is trying to target.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
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