Posted on 01/31/2006 11:05:56 AM PST by robowombat
Bush is kicking away his base By Phyllis Schlafly
Jan 30, 2006
The conservative movement that elected Ronald Reagan twice, George H.W. Bush once, and George W. Bush II twice, is essentially a movement of grass-rooters who don't like to take orders from the top and who revolt when they believe they are betrayed or bossed by those they elected. That's why the grass roots abandoned the first George Bush when he reneged on his "no new taxes, read my lips" promise.
The tough political tactics used by union bosses and Democratic machine bosses simply don't sit well with conservative Republicans.
Resentment against the current Bush administration is still festering about the combination of threats and bribes that pushed through close votes in Congress to pass the costly Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003 and Central American Trade Agreement in 2004.
Maybe the intra-party divisions between fiscal vs. Big Government conservatives that lay behind the former battle, and between pro vs. anti free-traders in the latter battle, were evenly balanced enough that the Bush administration alienated only a handful of Republicans. But in demanding a guest-worker plan that smacks of amnesty, the Bush administration is taking the unpopular side of a party division that is at least 80-20.
In December, the House passed a border-security bill authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.. The bill rejected support for Bush's guest worker/amnesty plan. Since 88 percent of Republican House members voted for this bill, that should have been a wake-up call to the president.
Shortly thereafter, Arizona Republican National Committee member Randy Pullen gathered enough signatures to present a resolution to the Republican National Committee at its Jan. 19-20 meeting in Washington, D.C., which endorsed border security measures and opposed any guest worker plan.
A competing resolution endorsing border security plus a guest worker plan was floated by the RNC's Bill Crocker of Texas. After he realized the strong tide against guest workers, he began negotiating a compromise with Pullen, and one version of the compromise eliminated guest workers.
When the RNC resolutions committee met Jan. 19, the chairman, Idaho's Blake Hall, brought up the original Crocker resolution that included guest worker language. An attempt by one committeeman to substitute the Crocker-Pullen compromise was ruled out of order, and then a motion to remove the guest worker language was voted down 5 to 3.
That evening, the Bush administration sent in its big guns, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., to insist that RNC members support the guest worker plan or else they would be labeled disloyal and disrespectful of President Bush. Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman made the rounds to regional caucuses to demand approval of Bush's guest worker plan and defeat of the Pullen resolution.
At the RNC meeting on Jan. 20, the Hall-approved resolution was incorporated and passed as part of a package of nine resolutions in order to preclude a specific vote on the border security-guest worker issue. The Pullen resolution did not come up.
This donnybrook happened on the same day that the New York Times reported that 18,207 illegal immigrants from nations other than Mexico have been the beneficiaries of the Bush administration's scandalous "catch and release" procedure in the three months since Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promised to "return every single illegal entrant - no exceptions." Catch and release means that the illegal immigrants from nations other than Mexico are not deported. But after they are apprehended, they are released on their own recognizance with instructions to reappear a few weeks later, with everybody understanding that they will disappear into the U.S. population.
Also on the same day, Lou Dobbs reported on CNN-TV that Mexican troops are crossing our southern border twice a month in uniform, in military vehicles and carrying military weapons. The Bush administration's response to this invasion is don't ask, don't tell.
It's bad enough that President Bush is pursuing a vastly unpopular guest worker-amnesty plan, but the administration's bullying to prevent debate and a vote by the full Republican National Committee was intolerable. It forecasts the sort of intimidation we can anticipate in the upcoming Senate debate about Bush's guest worker plan.
Why are President Bush and Karl Rove so tone deaf on this issue? Some speculate that the Bush administration is in the pocket of big business lobbying interests that want the cheap labor made available by the government's failure to enforce our immigration laws.
Others speculate that Bush and Rove are hallucinating that Hispanics will vote Republican. That won't happen; Hispanics vote 55 to 75 percent Democratic because, since they are mostly in the low-income sector of our economy, they vote for the party that promises the social benefits of the welfare state, not for the party that pretends to support fiscal integrity and small government.
The administration-imposed RNC defeat of the majority view of Republicans is bad news for the 2006 congressional elections. Bush is alienating his political base and creating what one RNC member calls an "enthusiasm deficit." In the words of the old adage, elephants (i.e., conservative Republicans) never forget.
Phyllis Schlafly is the President and Founder of the Eagle Forum
I do agree with that; just like "advice and consent."
It may be his biggest failures, but look at his successes - sometimes even important issues need to take a back seat to even more critical issues. With Iran getting ever more strident and recalcitrant towards world pressure, look for your issues to remain on the back burner even longer, and rightly so. Let's face it, the problem has been around through a few presidents, and none had as much on their plate as Bush. The fact that the real bad guys haven't managed to hit us because of the borders is an indication that there is more going on than meets the eye as to what is being done to protect us - it just hasn't been leaked . . . yet.
lol
okay. thanks for the stats update. My only argument is that illegal alien=horrific criminal doesn't compare.
Some people call it complaining, I call it constructive criticism and not wanting to rest on our laurels.
What a silly thing to say. I've know and debated marajade for almost seven years. Not once has mar refused to back up a claim.
The greater danger is the Canadian border wherefrom the only real thwarted threat came.
Fruitpickers are not a danger in terrorist terms.
I am convinced that many of those who are so hysterical about the Mexicans are plants attempting to destroy the GOP. What is a problem is so exaggerated by such blowhards that even those with some concern about it don't want anything to do with them. And most never voted for Bush in the first place but are disgruntled Brigadeers or other third forth fifth party loons.
Because they wouldn't be entitled to U.S. citizenship if they were born on the other side of the border, even if the mother rolled them across.
Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court is hardly kicking away his base.
I blame Trent Lott for that one. :-)
I would say we mostly agree. But it wouldn't be much of an interesting forum if all agreed on everything.
But............ the following was indeed beautiful.
*****
"No, Mimi, the other one -- the yellow one." ................. He was talking (about) the presidential flag! Three years old! He had seen the flag in the Oval Office and remember it. The boy's a genius. :-)
****
That was so wonderful. You should be so very proud.
Kindness from here.
Enjoy the speech tonight. The new excellent Judge Alito will be there for this country.
Right. But I'm for it and it would never to overrode by vote. I think though it maybe time for it to be tested.
And spot on correct.
You're welcome. We are all a little wound up these days.
I cannot wait for the speech tonight!
Well, if we can get a handle on who's coming in, that really won't be necessary, will it?
The bill that's on the table is Sensenbrenner's. Bush has no guest worker plan. He wants "Guest Worker wording" included in the immigration reforms.
bold.......... you are such a trip
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