Posted on 06/08/2006 5:12:02 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
As Carole King sang thirty years ago, “It’s too late, Baby.” She was referring to romance, but in this context it is too late for Team Bush to recapture the loyalty of the conservative GOP base.
Immigration/amnesty, Dubai Ports, Harriet Meyers, Katrina, deficits and Iraq have destroyed Mr. Bush’s credibility as president. The new federal effort on gay marriage is as transparent as the dispatching of “less than 5,000 unarmed national guardsmen” to our southern border: a cosmetic ploy in a vain effort to keep the conservatives in line.
This White House just doesn’t get it. Period.
Before - when Bush was in the 50's in all national polls - he could keep the GOP in line; and the GOP was happy to follow because they were winning.
But when your leader plummets to 29% - and is voted in the latest Quinnipiac poll as the worst president since WW II - there is no hope of enforcing party discipline. Thus you see the open defiance in the House on the Bush/Senate/McCain/Kennedy amnesty for illegal immigrants. And you see Speaker Hastert basically tell off the president over the FBI raid of Representative Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office.
The internal state of the Republican Party is one of total turmoil. They are floundering - and do not know what to do to right the ship of state.
So they are - again - trying to federalize a state issue: marriage.
Since when did we conservatives believe the federal government should usurp state’s rights? This is yet another example of the Bush Big Government philosophy changing the basic tenets of the Republican Party. The Bushes - believers in a Big Federal Government - have become the un-conservatives: a huge Department of Education, a bloated and ridiculous Department of Homeland Security, massive deficits, a new ‘entitlement’ - prescription drugs, a never-ending war that has morphed into the dreaded ‘nation-building’ and on and on and on.
After all of that, why would conservatives happily re-join Team Bush just because he mouths a few platitudes about an issue a close friend of his tells Newsweek, “He doesn’t give a s*** about”?
Both George Bushes - father and son - tried to portray themselves as conservatives; both were cynical manipulators who cleverly used symbols - pork rinds, country music, a phony ‘ranch’ with no animals - to hide their Rockefellerism belief in massive federal power, especially when they control that power.
But it is indeed “too late.” GW Bush’s credibility is shot; his power eroded; his ability to influence events virtually gone.
His own arrogance and ignorance caused his downfall. He was too arrogant to listen when warned about the impending fiasco in Iraq; and he was too ignorant - and lazy - to study history to see what lay ahead in a war such as this.
The result?
A presidency deteriorating right before our eyes. Never - even under the inept Carter or the corrupt Nixon - have we seen a self-immolation quite like this. And we still have 2 ½ years to go!
The Republican Party is a mess; the Democrats are horrible and should never be trusted again.
No wonder more and more people are calling for a Third Party. Or, as has been written in this space for more than a year, an Independent Third Candidate who runs against both parties.
That may indeed happen in ‘08. But that is a long, long way away.
First comes a major battle: where is the heart of the Republican Party? Is it for someone like McCain - a Teddy Kennedy in GOP clothing?
Or is there another Ronald Reagan true-blue conservative out there somewhere who wants to re-take our party and put it back on conservative principles?
That is the key question today.
the betting post is closed....
Thanks for stating the obvious in concise, completely irrefutable terms (the irrefutability probably being the reason no one's replied).
I guess this was one of those times when "what hardly needs stating" really needed stating.
i have to agree with that last...i just don't understand that guy.....
Actually Zarqawi has been dead for a long time; the White House merely postponed the announcement so that the boost for the President would make it more likely he'd get his way on the immigration bill /moonbat off
You can say that about the income tax too. And the US Dept. of Education, and all the million points of light thousands of other ways the government has a stranglehold on our lives and livelihoods.
The bright and shining hope that once Republicans controlled the Congress and the presidency there would be some real systemic change has faded. There is a gut-level fear amongst conservatives of what will happen when the RATS win the next two rounds of elections and any chances of instituting real changes has passed - replaced by a leftist/socialist block who believe they have a mandate.
No, I'm a Troll™ and can spot a lesser troll by what they post and how they lead others on to attack them.
Minor league trolls like yourself are totally devoid of humor and your only sick pleasure comes from baiting other into attacking you. Professional Troll™s like myself live to make others laugh with us at the hypocrisy of those humorless fools like yourself.
Why I'm still here even though I'm an Admitted Troll™ is that besides my love for humor, I make utterly brilliant points and can run circular logic around the length and breath of any liberal's argument.
Anyone with half a brain or ten times the brain you have would and could honestly admit that Bush has been repeatedly stymied by Republicans in congress and especially those in the senate when it comes to his domestic policies, you on the other hand can't see past the "It's all Bush's Fault" mentality of a liberal automoron spewing the Democrat party line.
Really? Which member of the WH staff was in the planes, on the ground or even at the planning meeting of the bombing raid? Was GW there?
What a load......
__________
The quarterback usually gets credit for the win. (Well, unless you're Trent Dilfer playing for the Ravens).
You do recall that GW is the CIC, right?
You have to cut them some slack...it can be sooooo frustrating when the spotlight has shifted to the White House and most American's are celebrating a great victory.
Question: why didn't these oh-so-brave congresscritters stand up against all this other crap? Did they HAVE to wait until the dam broke?
John LeBoot has been bashing away at President Bush from the moment he took office way back in 2001.
It's supposedly up for a vote this month.
Feel free to call your rep or senator.......and let them know what your opinion is on the death tax.
1-888-355-3588 US Capitol
A Ronald Regan is a rare phenomenon. Looking for one is an admission of hopelessness.
We all need to calm down a bit. We are talking about politicians! They are all politicians in the end, which means they have to compromise with the other side from time to time to get things done. We are citizens, which means we are allowed (thanks to all the brave soilders) to debate issues and even disagree with some of our leaders. Can you imagine the Clinton years if that weren't true?! No one's perfect, immigration is more complex than we know...rest assured that the conservative agenda is the end game...but again, feel free to knock the process.
And, an honest critic would look through my posts and see that I blame Bush for lack of leadership and Congress, particularly the pubs, for a complete lack of spine in dealing with domestic policies.
I actually long for the days of Newt Gingrich and his "Contract with America". Those were the good old days of conservatism. We had a conservative House that got a conservative agenda pushed through under the pen of Clinton.
Bush has had a supposedly republican Congress and has failed to get some of the better policies that he espoused even out of committee. He has been so caught up on Iraq he failed to use his political capital on domestic issues. Instead, nowadays, in an attempt to bolster his political capital he runs around the U.S. telling us how wonderful the illegals have been and are for us.
When was the last time he did a tour around the U.S. telling the American people, who pay his salary, how great they are.
Now the military finally kills Zargawi and people want to give credit to Bush. Hell, he was probable asleep when it happened. We all know he doesn't stay up late.
ahem, libs do not support some stuff and bash other stuff of bush's. to me, he sounds more libertarian...last time i checked, they were welcomed here...
Or, if you are talking about the Bears whose defense wins more games than their offense.
I would hpo that he did NOT order the bombing. That kind of micromanaging the battlefield from Washington has been the bane of our military operations since LBJ. W can have great credit for Z if his contribution was only to tell the generals to Get Him back when Z was first on the radar.
Dubai was fearmongering by Schumer and a bunch of paranoid handwringers. Politically it hurt because the GOP in the Senate and House lost their nerve.
Deficits have never been a motivating factor for the average voter--even in '94 the average voter wasn't freaked out about the deficit. Even Reagan wasn't too upset: he said the deficit is "big enough to take care of itself". In jest, of course, but the point is clear: deficits are not a big factor in the mind of Joe Sixpack.
I think Bush's low numbers stem from immigration and gas prices. Not necessarily in that order. Of course, the factors you mentioned probably HAVE hurt him with his base but not the average person.
I remember George H.W. Bush as a great leader in the Gulf War.
I agree with you President Bush needs to stand his ground more against the media, including "conservative" media that repeats media conventional wisdom about Katrina, etc.
But remember, President Bush was a very successful governor of Texas, and his "new tone" there made friends and allies out of sensible Democrats like Bob Bullock. I think what President Bush didn't know is that there's only one sensible Democrat, and even that's true only if adding Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman together is allowed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.