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At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic
washingtonpost.com ^ | Wednesday, March 8, 2006 | Dana Milbank

Posted on 03/08/2006 7:08:13 AM PST by beeler

If the ancient political wisdom is correct that a charge unanswered is a charge agreed to, the Bush White House pleaded guilty yesterday at the Cato Institute to some extraordinary allegations.

"We did ask a few members of the Bush economic team to come," explained David Boaz, the think tank's executive vice president, as he moderated a discussion between two prominent conservatives about President Bush. "We didn't get that."

Now why would the administration pass up such an invitation?

Well, it could have been because of the first speaker, former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett. Author of the new book "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," Bartlett called the administration "unconscionable," "irresponsible," "vindictive" and "inept."

It might also have had something to do with speaker No. 2, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan. Author of the forthcoming "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back," Sullivan called Bush "reckless" and "a socialist," and accused him of betraying "almost every principle conservatism has ever stood for."

Nor was moderator Boaz a voice of moderation. He blamed Bush for "a 48 percent increase in spending in just six years," a "federalization of public schools" and "the biggest entitlement since LBJ."

True, the small-government libertarians represented by Cato have always been the odd men out of the Bush coalition. But the standing-room-only forum yesterday, where just a single questioner offered even a tepid defense of the president, underscored some deep disillusionment among conservatives over Bush's big-spending answer to Medicare and Hurricane Katrina, his vast claims of executive power, and his handling of postwar Iraq.

Bartlett, who lost his job at the free-market National Center for Policy Analysis because of his book, said that if conservatives were honest, more would join his complaint.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bartlett; betrayal; bush; cato; christiansocialist; danamilbank; gop; lbjrepublican; libertarians; presidentbush; sullivan; washingtonpost
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To: Halgr
I am saying that you did not vote for Bush twice and that you are either a buchannaite style conservative or a troll.
41 posted on 03/08/2006 7:50:34 AM PST by jveritas (Hate can never win elections.)
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To: jveritas

Hahaha. Oh wait, you're serious, let me laugh harder. Bwahahaha!


42 posted on 03/08/2006 7:50:43 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: jveritas
Do you stand by this statement all the way till elections day?

Hey, I don't want it to happen.

But, unless there is a drastic change in the management philosophy and positions (policy directions) of the White House, it sure appears likely based on not my personal feelings, but what I witnessed in our town's Republican Caucus. A conservative bell-weather.

43 posted on 03/08/2006 7:51:14 AM PST by Paul Ross (Hitting bullets with bullets successfully for 35 years!)
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To: Soul Seeker
Little 'l' libertarianism is conservatism. To my knowledge, Cato is not an arm of the Libertarian party.
44 posted on 03/08/2006 7:52:38 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: jveritas
Frankly, I think Farah is right to claim credit for getting Bush elected in the first place.

Interesting that you 'big tenters' are so eager to see a conservative 'kicked out'.

Did you vote for Reagan twice?

45 posted on 03/08/2006 7:53:47 AM PST by Paul Ross (Hitting bullets with bullets successfully for 35 years!)
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To: jveritas
I assume you would include Reagan in that group. He won at least one election in a landslide.
46 posted on 03/08/2006 7:55:06 AM PST by beeler ("When you’re running down my country, Hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me.")
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To: jveritas; Halgr
I am saying that you did not vote for Bush twice and that you are either a buchannaite style conservative or a troll.

I would say, given the reality of the day, that such a person is not in favor of big government socialism.

47 posted on 03/08/2006 7:58:30 AM PST by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: jackbenimble

"Just about every State that has a ballot initiative process has already passed an Amendment banning gay marriage. I wonder how the Republicans will get conservatives to the polls for the next few elections? I see nothing but dissillusionment and anger on the forums I visit with a few RNC operatives trying to hold things together."

Let's see, there's gay adoption, and after that's played out there's gay teachers in schools, and after that's played out there's still a whole pile of businesses that allow benefits to gay couples, and after that's played out there's...

You know, all the important stuff.


48 posted on 03/08/2006 7:59:32 AM PST by Gone GF
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To: woofie
Are you crying over what Bush did in the Supreme Court?

Not currently. Quite pleased, so far.

But Don't forget we had to come down on the Administration like a ton of bricks to cure his Helen Meiers nomination. If she hadn't inadvertantly outed herself in front of the Texas Bar Association, and some conservative texas attorneys remembered that speech, the administration probably would have stone-walled for her nomination just as much as they are now stonewalling over Dubai.

As for the bot's claim that this was all part of GWB's master plan to smoke out the RATs and then jui-jitsu them with a switch in policy, I believe Bill Bennett has it right, that these were his real first choices and his preferences. Hence the clever machiavelli-maneuvering isn't what's happening, "they're just not that smart."

49 posted on 03/08/2006 8:02:06 AM PST by Paul Ross (Hitting bullets with bullets successfully for 35 years!)
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To: beeler

Andrew Sullivan is no conservative.


50 posted on 03/08/2006 8:02:21 AM PST by holdonnow
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To: Paul Ross

I was 9 years old in 1980 and 13 years old in 1984.


51 posted on 03/08/2006 8:03:12 AM PST by jveritas (Hate can never win elections.)
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To: holdonnow

I wonder if you would agree with my # 20 ?


52 posted on 03/08/2006 8:09:16 AM PST by woofie
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To: dirtboy
"So unless the GOP decides to curtail spending and make a serious effort to address illegal immigration, among other matters, the only real solution is to start to threaten the GOP with first staying home in 2006, and then forming a new party in 2008 if they don't get the message in 2006."

No hope. Vote for a more conservative government - vote for gridlock.

There are Wall Street Republicans [Bush] and Main Street Republicans [Reagan]. The port fiasco where Bush sets out a corollary to his earlier Iraq 'all Muslims are terrorists' now an 'investor exception'. Bush is in the Wall Street camp.

53 posted on 03/08/2006 8:11:56 AM PST by ex-snook (God of the Universe, God of Creation, God of Love, thank you for life.)
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To: eskimo

I really don't care what they "seem" to you.

The fact they embrace Andrew Sullivan, Barlett and having read some of their stated positions? They are not conservative. NOR would they appreciate being labeled so. From my experience with libertarians, they pride themselves in NOT being conservatives.


54 posted on 03/08/2006 8:23:51 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: Soul Seeker
If ever a group wanted to harm itself, inviting Andrew Sullivan to be a featured speaker is one way to do it.

I like Sullivan. He's a little shrill sometimes but generally I think he is an intelligent conservative pundit.

55 posted on 03/08/2006 8:24:54 AM PST by conserv13
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To: holdonnow
Andrew Sullivan is no conservative.

Why do you say that?

56 posted on 03/08/2006 8:25:36 AM PST by conserv13
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To: beeler

No, it is not.

Nor, would libertarians appreciate you trying to assert otherwise.

If they wanted to be labeled conservatives, they wouldn't have established themselves as libertarians. They did this deliberately because they are NOT in sync with conservatives. Somestimes...we have common goals. Quite often we don't. We work together when necessary, exist in different spheres when not.


57 posted on 03/08/2006 8:26:26 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: conserv13

Once more, Sullivan is NOT a conservative.

Nor has he been rational since the President announced support for a gay marriage ban. Before that, he enjoyed some time of well earned recognition. Since then he has a vendetta against the administration and more often spews Liberal rhetoric.

Christopher Hitchens (rational Liberal) he is NOT, nor is he a conservative.


58 posted on 03/08/2006 8:29:14 AM PST by Soul Seeker (Rush on the MSM: drive-by shooters)
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To: jveritas
I was 9 years old in 1980 and 13 years old in 1984.

My point exactly.

I fear for our young conservatives.

Many of them just don't know how much they don't know.

59 posted on 03/08/2006 8:30:35 AM PST by Paul Ross (Hitting bullets with bullets successfully for 35 years!)
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To: Soul Seeker
You say he is not a conservative but you give no evidence.

He is for less government, balanced budgets, etc...

60 posted on 03/08/2006 8:32:12 AM PST by conserv13
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