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Conservatives, Cut Bush Slack
The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | June 22, 2002 | Thomas Roeser

Posted on 06/22/2002 9:46:05 AM PDT by quidnunc

This summer will mark the 47th year since I took my first Republican job: as public relations director for the party in Minnesota. Since then I have rarely strayed from politics, or my party. I served as a staffer to two GOP congressmen, to a GOP governor, as a federal appointee to Richard Nixon and as a corporate executive who supported in Washington and Springfield much, if not all, of the Republican agenda.

You can describe me as a conservative. Thus I am qualified to say that although I dearly love conservatives, they tend to be querulous, disagreeable and threaten revolt when Republican office-holders don't please them. So it is now with George W. Bush. Here is a president who has surprised us all with the firmness and resolve he showed after 9/11. I must tell you I voted for him with less enthusiasm than I had for many of his predecessors. But his administration has pleased me often — most notably on two issues: defense of America and social policy.

Yet, Bush has to get re-elected in a country that is evenly divided on philosophy. Thus he must occasionally — on matters that sometimes offend conservatives — dip into the other side's ideology for support. He has done so on three notable occasions: on the issue of steel protectionism, where he departed his free-market proclamations; on the signing of a campaign finance bill tailored by his enemies, and allowing his attorney general (in the words of Libertarian Nat Hentoff in the Washington Times) "to send disguised agents into religious institutions, libraries and meetings of citizens critical of government policy without a previous complaint, or reason to believe that a crime has been committed."

In a perfect political world, where conservatives are in the majority, these things would be sufficient to encourage a boycott of the polls. Either that or a protest vote for the Democratic opposition. But we are not in a perfect world. We conservatives have a president who didn't receive a majority of the votes, and has one house of Congress against him. He must make compromises to get re-elected. Conservatives who do not understand the nature of politics ought to stay in their air-conditioned ivory towers and refrain from political activity altogether. If they cannot adjudge the stakes in this election and the difference between Bush and an Al Gore or a John Kerry (D-Mass.) or a Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), they are foolish indeed.

-snip-

To read the remainder of this op/ed open the article via the link provided in the thread's header.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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To: ned
"I'm sorry to have to be the one to break the news to you, but DeathtoAraratHamasHizbollah is with the fishes now. "

Sorry. I didn't realize how long the thread was and began at the beginning.

Think we can resurrect him so that we can ban him again?

101 posted on 06/22/2002 11:28:41 AM PDT by moneyrunner
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To: moneyrunner
Just for you!

YELLOW ALERT! THIS THREAD IS NOW INFECTED WITH:


102 posted on 06/22/2002 11:29:29 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: MJY1288
what should the list be called :-)

The "Enemies List," of course.

Seriously, though. This is the kind of crap we don't need, and is every bit as bad as whatever the worst of the 100% Bush bashers do. We've been through factional battles before here (does "Coven" vs. "anti-Coven" ring any bells?), and it hurts us much more than it helps.

There are many people here who agree with the President some of the time, and disagree some of the time. I am one of those people, and I am not the enemy.

103 posted on 06/22/2002 11:34:22 AM PDT by B Knotts
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To: IanSherwood
Maybe, but his wife said in a interview on one of the morning shows that she did not think Roe v. Wade should be overturned!!

Now she is her own woman, but I don't think she would we saying that if her husband did not agree. This was some time ago and maybe some will argue, that it made no difference what she said, she was just trying to get along with the other side. I don't buy that.

104 posted on 06/22/2002 11:34:27 AM PDT by nanny
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To: quidnunc
The U.S. Supreme Court will alter the campaign finance bill so that it will be satisfactory--indeed help conservatives.

Tom, you don't know that. That's an ASSUMPTION.

105 posted on 06/22/2002 11:35:52 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
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To: quidnunc
As for your criticism of Roeser's reasoning, he has fought in the political trenches on behalf of the GOP for allmost 50 years and has held down a responsible job in the 0federal government. Why should anyone believe that you know more than he does?

I am not in a contest with Mr. Roeser on our capacity to memorize trivia about Government. I gave my reasons for criticizing his article. He may know a lot about Government. It is his analytic ability that is questioned. In my reply at #72 (see, above), I gave one example where it was flawed. If you like, I can give more, even in the short piece posted.

As to your insulting inquiry, I owe no political allegiance to any group or entity on earth but to my State and the Union. As a loyal Ohioan, I serve America. As a loyal American, I serve my State. I am a registered Republican, but that is as a preference. It does not command my allegiance, only my preference. What is it about that that you cannot understand?

Again, to return to your actual subject: The issue as to your post is not what Roeser knows, but the soundness of his advice. It is a hopelessly flawed recipe for disaster.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

106 posted on 06/22/2002 11:36:41 AM PDT by Ohioan
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To: Admin Moderator; MJY1288
How about this instead of a weed wacker...


107 posted on 06/22/2002 11:37:10 AM PDT by rintense
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To: quidnunc
Thanks for being willing to take the arrows! I have a friend who describes himself as a "conservative". He is furious with GW,just furious and you know why? Not because of steel tariffs,not because of CFR,not because of the farm bill-but,because we won't drop a nuke on the Arab countries, especially the Palestinians!! He's says that logically he knows that we cannot start nuking countries willy nilly-and yet, he is angry at GW for not doing just that!! My personal experience is that those most furious with GW,have a lot of, shall we say, anger issues, which I am sure spill over into other areas of their lives.
108 posted on 06/22/2002 11:39:26 AM PDT by Wild Irish Rogue
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To: 185JHP
he expressed the extent to which "talk" and symbolism are important

Right. He also changed, at least for a while, the nature of the debate. It had been something like "how can government best solve this problem" to something like "should government be involved here".

He also, while not cutting/abolishing/ reducing did not do much in the way of advocating big leaps in government spending/involvement.....current farm bill comes to mind. As times passes, he looks even better and better.

109 posted on 06/22/2002 11:40:17 AM PDT by RJCogburn
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To: B Knotts
The "Enemies List," of course.

Seriously, though. This is the kind of crap we don't need, and is every bit as bad as whatever the worst of the 100% Bush bashers do. We've been through factional battles before here (does "Coven" vs. "anti-Coven" ring any bells?), and it hurts us much more than it helps.

There are many people here who agree with the President some of the time, and disagree some of the time. I am one of those people, and I am not the enemy.

Very well said, and I agree wholeheartedly.

110 posted on 06/22/2002 11:42:56 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: B Knotts
BTW, you do know that your post put you on their 'list', right?
111 posted on 06/22/2002 11:44:18 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: nanny
Maybe, but his wife said in a interview on one of the morning shows that she did not think Roe v. Wade should be overturned!!

If it's the interview I'm thinking of, I believe she said that she didn't think the Supreme Court would overturn the prior decision, not that she thought Roe vs Wade should stand.

112 posted on 06/22/2002 11:45:35 AM PDT by Randjuke
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To: GraniteStateConservative
Well, temper tantrums - really? I suppose the Boston Tea Party, The Reveolution WAr, The War of 1812, WWII, etc., etc., were just temper tantrums?

Compromise is give and take on both sides. Do we see any give on the other side except on the tax cut.

Either you have a philosophy or you don't. If you do, you stand up for it. That is my philosophy.I believe there are some things you cannot compromise on and if you do, you are lost.

If the idea is to keep a political party in the WH just so they can say they won and their man is in the WH - then that is their philosphy. This is a free (relatively speaking), country and I will not call anyone names for it. I just don't understand namecalling.

113 posted on 06/22/2002 11:46:02 AM PDT by nanny
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To: All
It is seems to me that some folks, while appearing to support GW, are trying to alienate those with legitimate complaints against GW. Any criticism at all is considered "bashing". If the folks with complaints are in error, you don’t convince people of their error by calling them ignorant and whiners, etc. Could it be that you really do want to alienate us?


114 posted on 06/22/2002 11:51:11 AM PDT by al_possum39
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To: RJCogburn
He is one of only two Presidents that I admire, that I have observed. The other one is Eisenhower. The standard is integrity - did he stand for good things, regardless of mockery and costs?
115 posted on 06/22/2002 11:52:39 AM PDT by 185JHP
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To: All
To whoever hit abuse about #18 saying

So, does this crowd (Howlin, Southflanknorthpawsis, Sinkspur, et al) now have an FR 'enemies lists' going, or what?

If allowed to, the dozen or so leaders of this corps on FR are going to take this site right down the toilet, IMO.

The list they are talking about, I am pretty sure, is a list of people they want to personally ignore once this software change is implemented.

I am curious though. Just what sort of actions would you have wanted the moderators to take if that wasn't the case?

Thanks

116 posted on 06/22/2002 11:52:57 AM PDT by Admin Moderator
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To: oline
I don't believe that the Axis of Whining Weasels comments are directed at people like you (based on what you said in the referenced post). It's one thing to not approve of everything that he does, but you seem to understand that refusing to vote for him and even going so far as to vote for a democrat is not the answer.

No, the AWW consists of people who want to demonize GWB. An example: A couple of weeks ago there was a silly vanity thread listing reasons why GWB is liberal. I'm paraphrasing quite a bit here, but this is the gist of it. One of the things on the list was that GWB is liberal because he made a comment that no American should have to pay more than a third of their income in income tax.

Now, any reasonable person understands that to mean that the president is objecting to the idea of us paying high taxes. These people who glommed onto that as a way to criticize the president pretended that it meant that the president was saying that paying one-third of our income in income tax is fine and dandy.

The Axis of Whining Weasels, as I understand it, are a group of people who, if GWB were to walk on water, would gripe because he got his shoes wet.

117 posted on 06/22/2002 11:53:30 AM PDT by alnick
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To: Ohioan
Ohioan wrote: As to your insulting inquiry, I owe no political allegiance to any group or entity on earth but to my State and the Union. As a loyal Ohioan, I serve America. As a loyal American, I serve my State. I am a registered Republican, but that is as a preference. It does not command my allegiance, only my preference. What is it about that that you cannot understand?

I don't understand why you are taking umberage at my inquiry.

During our last meeting on the Net you repeatedly and persistantly refused to forthrightly declare that you owed allegience to America, preferring instead to dance all around the point with — dare I say it? — weasel words.

I should think you would be flattered that I remembered you with such specificity.

And not to put too fine a point on it, I'm not going to waste my time in interaction with any American citizen who doesn't consider his primary non-family loyalty to be to America.

Now that we've settled that point we can move on.

118 posted on 06/22/2002 11:53:36 AM PDT by quidnunc
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To: OldFriend
I think the real problem for Conservatives is the realization that the only way to defeat liberals, is to wrestle them on their own terms and on their own turf-the sewer. It's very similar to the war on terrorism. THe rules followed by the terrorists is: "If it works good do it." Sounds a lot like :"If it feels good do it", doesn't it?

I believe that most Conservative politicians are still ruled by their consciences and though they are driven to be in office making a difference for the better, they are repulsed by the slime of the liberal left that liberals gorge upon, that conservatives as well are forced to wade through, on the way to being elected.

We are expecting the humanly impossible when we demand that conservatives emerge into office pure as the driven snow after surviving the trek through the liberal swamp of political campaigns. We should rejoice when our own survive the journey and take office still ours despite the scars inflicted during the battle.

Fact is that liberals are bad, no matter how good our enemies say they are-Conservatives are good ,no matter how bad our friends say they are.

119 posted on 06/22/2002 11:54:35 AM PDT by F.J. Mitchell
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To: EternalVigilance; B Knotts
See above. I think you are jumping to a wrong conclusion about to what they were referring.
120 posted on 06/22/2002 11:55:09 AM PDT by Admin Moderator
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