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
If that happens, President Bush SHOULD be impeached.
Then why don't you STOP POSTING TO ME?????
You always post to me and then claim victimhood.
No, I believe you are.
"Phyllis Schlafly stands for everything that has made America great and for those things which will keep it that way." --- Ronald Reagan
Facts might bring more people into your fold, but, alas, that doesn't seem to be one of the points on your agenda either.
I don't care what you believe or think.
There is none ..........
No offense to Reagan, but he hasn't been able to understand a word she said for the last ten years.
You are confused. Race would be Hispanic. Nationality would be Mexican. Further clues would be last known addresses. Frequently they include one south of the border.
Btw, I'm still trying to figure out the infatuation with Condi as Prez.
It won't change. It's all in the plan(s).
Who says he's not listening? CNN MSNBC Dan Rather? If he was doing anything do you think we'd really hear about it? O'Reilly loves the ratings when he mentions the immigration problem.
We will never hear about the progress on this President's watch and unfortunately he's not one to trumpet his own horn when he's busy working.
I mentioned JD Hayworth earlier, has he only seen the issue now that he's lost the weight and can think about anything other than food? All these politicians have given lip service until they're up for re-election. I'll give Tancredo credit he has been out there the longest speaking about this.
I'm still asking who's running 3rd party in '08 and how can you be so sure they will have the solution to your concerns?
Talking about me too. You're terribly lonely.
You've gone from claiming you were complimenting Howlin, to crying to the mods, to calling her a nasty witch. Go back to your hobby of playing with pansies, petunias and poseys...lol.
Translation: I made an ignorant statement that I can't back up with a scintilla of fact.
Phyliss will never be president or hold elected office of any consequence.
That's not the point, her qualifications are. (and you misspelled Phyllis)
By the way, genius, would you care to compare Mrs. S's résumé vis-à-vis your own?
No, you are the confused one. There are Mexicans here legally. Did you know that?
Am I losing my mind or is there another shift happening? How is it that Republicans/Conservatives argue and fight amongst themselves every time there is a victory---small one maybe---but nevertheless a victory.
Good Lord. What's next for you? Beating her up in the parking lot?
Insert your objections to her here: reportedly she's pro-abortion.
The fix was in, and Perot was part of it.
NWO Bush ran to lose purposely, and Perot was a plant designed to siphon Pubbies away further.
Bubba with ALL his scandals and BS took the prize and "mandate" with a whopping 43%.
I like this one much better! It's red.
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