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
Mr Bush gets up in the morning and pulls his pants on just like you do. He is mortal. I trust him in most important matters but he has failed me on one or two. He is mortal. Just needs to be swayed from time to time. He is definately ten steps up on Mr. Kerry. (Damn I said the name that was never to be said) but he still has to remain in touch with those who made that little manuever called "voting". On immigration GW is out of touch with his electorate. He is in touch with major corporations' USA. He keeps it up he is going to hurt his GOP Senators big time. No BS, fact. They know it even if he doesn't. Did the house give anyone a clue?
We're on the LIVE thread now for the SOTU Address, if you'd like to join us?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1569002/posts
I just posted the stats from the DOJ website.
Bush has been awful on immigration. What is the point of fighting in Iraq and letting everyone in across the Mexican border. I won't vote for another Bush again and hope that Jeb not considering it because he would lose. Everyone knows the Bushs' have a soft spot for illegal Mexicans and National Security comes in second to illegals on their list.
" We're all the base, it's just that the "purist" are trying to push out the rest of us."
Well, I guess I'm one of the "purists" and we do not agree on who's trying to push whom out. The way we see it, it's the Hispandering GOP Big Tent party-over-principle types who are pushing the conservatives out. We have gotten the message, however. And we do know the way out.
Big mistake by the way, alienating and excluding 30+% of the total base. Going to make electing RINOs even tougher. Check with Ken Mehlman and ask him how the donations are coming along, and how many RNC/2006 membership cards have been returned cut in half.
Sad, but that's what happens when the GOP Big Tent decides it can do without conservatives. Now it may have to.
Actually, I put my panty hose on first. Hope he skips that step. My own personal feeling is that I voted for him holding my nose, there was just no other choice. I know he's a mortal, and I pray for him daily. I have faith that he's doing the best he can, it's just not good enough right now. I also feel there is a big house cleaning needed in Congress. I'm fed up with all of them. Seriously thinking 3rd party.
Try not to overinflate your numbers, even if you do need to do that to make yourself feel not quite so lonely.
Check with Ken Mehlman and ask him how the donations are coming along, and how many RNC/2006 membership cards have been returned cut in half.
Perhaps it's you who needs to do some checking; donations and money on hand are WAY over the top.
remember alito would not have happened without the total rejection of meirs by the conservative base + pundits.
As a "citizen reporter" you surely must be aware that Mrs. S probably wrote this well before it was published on her website?
Not that I would doubt that the inimitable, irrepressible, First Lady of Conservatism would've held it back even if she had written it only this morning.
God bless Phyllis Schlafy, for she proves that the Left does not have a monopoly on ill-behaved, shrewish, unfeminine women...nor Milquetoast men.
Exactly right. I have 2 boys I care about very much, one already in Iraq, one going back for the 2nd time. Are they wasting their efforts? What is GWB thinking by spending our national treasure there, and letting the same people in the back door! We've had enough Bushes. Time for new blood.
I still proudly wear those battle scars. Miers was the worst possible choice. Alito was second on my list, and kudo's to the president on a great associate justice.
wow i was about to post exactly that!!!!!!
:D
Did it ever dawn on anyone that Bush doesn't think all Mexicans are trying to take over America and/or destroy it? Maybe that's why he isn't for shooting them all as they try to cross the border.
Phyllis Schlaffly is a brilliant woman but she is too often willing to throw out the baby with the bath water. Bush is a practical conservative; building a fence and putting the military on it as well as deporting the million+ illegals isn't practical. He is about tax cuts, a stronger military, and judicial restraint...all practical and all accomplished. If this type of rhetoric takes flight in the "grassroots" movement, Eagle Forum and the like are going to get us a dem in 08 and we're going to lose seats in 2006. I'm not 100% satisfied with this president either -- but I want to win so I support him. No one is perfect but 43 has been an outstanding leader for conservative causes these last 5 years. And by the way, congratulations Justice Alito.
holy crap, this thread is generating a lot of posts :D
Hey right back to you, onyx. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Bump.
Yes, thank you, and you and yours too?
GOOD to see you.
Oh sure.......she wrote it a long time ago -- and it takes what, FIVE SECONDS to upload it?
Bogus.
"I still proudly wear those battle scars"
I remember :-D
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