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
Would you please explain "The New World Order"? Define it. Thanks.
I enjoy a lot of stuff; just not you, which seems to bother the hell out of you, or you wouldn't be following me around posting to and about me when I've asked you not to repeatedly.
Take a hint.
Speak for yourself, not the base.
So glad you consider yourself CZAR of the party jerk!!!
Yes, it's the one he refers to most often. Bush has not been talking publicly anymore about adding citizenship to a gust worker plan, that doesn't mean he isn't still pushing for it privately.
ooh boy! You got some disgruntle folks on your tail it seems. Ya think the Alito thing pissed a few people off?
Sheeeeeeettttt! I was a gonna vote fur him!!!!!
Not sure if this eases your fears(or mine for that matter), but I believe that the Kyl/Cornyn plan does not call for the worker program to be set up until the stronger enforcement provisions are in place.
I believe it was YOU who was speaking for the base, not me.
I speak for myself; evidently you think your position is so vacuous you need to wrap yourself up in "the base."
"The base" you ain't.
read later
I enjoy a lot of stuff; just not you, which seems to bother the hell out of you, or you wouldn't be following me around posting to and about me when I've asked you not to repeatedly.
Glad you showed up guy. I was getting bored and needed to tromp an idiot!!!
Oh, that isn't just about Alito; bts has a "thang" about me. Go figure.
HUH??
Phyllis has done some great work, but to invoke this memory at this time, implying approval of Bush's base deserting him now, just after he has won a major battle on crucial Supreme Court justices, is both illtimed and fails to recognize the dreadful result of the base's earlier "abandonment"--eight years of the 2-for-the-price-of-one Clintons.
Does anyone believe that any Democrat on the scene today would be good for American liberty and our posterity?
It's always wise to look for the unintended consequences of ideas.
LOL
And who do you consider to be the base of this party. The handfull of GOP Senators who stiffled debate on illegal immigration or the grass-roots and Senator dialing folks like me who don't want to kiss Bush'es ass on this issue. And please explain how you differ?
There is only one thing I will call a Victory and that is when he decides to secure the borders. I am fed up with his talk about it, I want to see action.
Dear Phyllis,
You make some excellent points concerning some of the toughest issues we face today. I did notice that the accomplishments of the current administration are apparently not worth mentioning...especially today.
If only YOU would run for President in '08 ALL these problems would magically disappear. I can't wait for the scenes of mass deportations of millions on the evening news. Come on Phyllis...you can do it!
Kind regards and happy hunting,
Liberty
I am 100% certain Phyllis knows the correct name--she is a writer, and writers use various "tools" to make you think and for wit, style, etc. Ann Coulter is a master at that. Also, Phyllis was once again right on target with a very good commentary here.
Phyllis referred to G. H. W. Bush's breaking of his "no new taxes" pledge, and George Bush broke his promise of limited government, among others (including nominating Harriet Miers).
So, it was just a "stylistic" comment equating Bush I with Bush II in the sense both "kicked their base".
Anyway, now that I have you both, here is one thing I would like to hear President Bush say tonight.......Since Jimmy Carter created the Dept of Energy, we have funded it to over $400 billion plus dollars, yet we are more dependent on foreign oil today than when Carter created the DOE. This is just one more example of a broken US Govt that must be fixed. He then demands we make nuclear power 50% of our power source, about equal to some European countries, and demands we stop wasting taxpayer dollars for no return, such as this DOE (Energy) and the broken DOE (Education)--both cases where we have bankrupted the treasury and received zilch in return.
I guess we all could think of "I wish President Bush would have said this" stuff, but this one really bothers me, even though Iran, N. Korea and a reemerging Russia military/China military threat are greater threats.
That's mine. What do you two wish the President would say but know he will not say? (Other than calling Manslaughter Kennedy a fat ass idiot for his lame filibuster attempt).
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