Knight Ridder Wire: Bush-bashing on the rise within GOP

[PhilipShore]

Knight Ridder Newspapers
Bush-bashing on the rise within GOP
Feb. 12, 2006

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/13854697.htm

WASHINGTON - Conservatives love to quote Ronald Reagan at every opportunity, to invoke him as the exemplar of their ideology. But in their winter of discontent, many on the right are breaching Reagan's 11th commandment, which decrees that no Republican shall ever speak ill of another.

And the target of their ire is President Bush.

At the dawn of a crucial election year - and with all the polls indicating that the Democrats are poised to make gains in the House and Senate - the Bush White House is banking on a big, enthusiastic conservative turnout in November. But that will happen only if the Bush base calls a halt to its Bush-bashing.

The bashing has been quite intense in recent days. Commentator Jonah Goldberg, miffed that Bush has piled up record deficits and boosted the size of government, writes that Bush "is spending money like a pimp with a week to live." Another, Fox News analyst Tony Snow, says that Bush's decision to shelve his Social Security privatization plan is "an act of surrender." Yet another, former Reagan domestic-policy adviser Bruce Bartlett, is releasing a book this month titled "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

[babylonsister]

1. Music to my ears; abandon ship! nt

[fjc]

23. It shouldn't be, music to your ears that is.

This is not a party who feels they must "jump ship." They're building a new one, on the theme that Bush was not conservative enough. If it's music, it's the theme from Jaws.

[TalkingDog]

25. Bush isn't a conservative at all. He's an Ultra-Liberal.

Name one conservative stance he takes:

Limited budget?
States rights?
Not tampering with the Constitution?
Non-interference in the lives of private citizens?
Supporting small business and entreprenureship?
Limiting immigration?
Moderate to strong isolationist policies?

As an ULTRA-Liberal he thinks the presidency can and should use it's unchecked power to shape the face of the country and of the world.

Real conservatives hate him. They just don't want to fracture the party. Look at the founders of the Neo-Conservative Party. Many were "former" liberals. They just found a way to make a hideous hybrid of the best of both parties.

I'm a liberal, my husband is a (democratic) conservative. Trust me. We both deny him.

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. Not liberal - he has no concern for social justice at all. He is a RADICAL

FASCIST, a WAR CRIMINAL, and a TRAITOR. The real conservatives were the first to be sidelined in the neocon movement. Until this constitutional crisis has been overcome, we progressives have a strong reason to join forces in forcing out the neocons. It's unprecedented. But don't call him an ultra-liberal. He's not. Gonozales and Yoo make up things out of thin air to "support" an unlimited imperial president and say they are consitutional law, but that is lies and everyone who has ever read the constitution knows it. The Constitution was written to PREVENT this from occurring by installing as many checks and balances as the founders could come up with.

[sarcasmo]

37. Taliborinagain, Corporate Fascists would best describe 43.

[beltanefauve]

40. Liberals

believe that the mark of a truly civilized society is based upon how well the least of its members are treated. And Bush and the neocons believe....

[blm]

33. I'd prefer a real conservative American over a fascist imperialist.

.

[Pithy Cherub]

32. Another of the 5 senses. The taste of fried chickenhawk

every day, all day has republicans mounting an insurrection. They are now grudingly acknowledging conservatives are hostages in the bush administration and have been eating bush dingleberries & cheney chickenhawk specials all this time.

[rfranklin]

2. Desperation makes the vermin vicious, doesn't it?

They were fine with everything the Chimp did as long as his polls were high. How quickly they turn on him!

[PATRICK]

3. Not to interrupt a hate fest

but I would love to see ads that say Bush is the peak of consevratism, the realization of all their dreams, the absolute best they can do, and quote some of their past words to back that up.

An amnesiac actor, a chickenhawk frat boy, hacks and the hated, pushers of the Bush/PNAC agenda all, who among all that sorry tribe is better than what they have presented even in their more fantastic glossovers?

Are the new critics saying THEY are Third Way Republicans??????

[rodeodance]

4. nominate for a SWEET day!

[napi21]

5. Since we know that, what can the Dems vow to cut if elected?

I think we have to be careful not to be too vocal about cutting DOD spending, because there's still a lot of people who believe America is being threatened by many others.

I have ONE suggestion that I think would work, but it's difficult and time consuming to explain, and that makes it a very difficult message to get out!

I listened to a hearing on Capital Hill with DHS and what happened to all the $$ for boarder security. They were talking about cameras, and unmanned surveilance things. The reps from DHS admitted that they had received MILLIONS of $$, and contracts had been signed for a few years already, but of the hundreds of items promised by contractors, only two had been actually provided. They blamed their failure on beuracracy and if you would have heard all the hands the process had to go through, you'd understand why! Streamlining the process, and putting one individual in charge of making sure things got done would save MILLIONS of $$ , and wouldn't have to cut ONE SINGLE PROGRAM!

The same thing is happening in Iraq, but there we're talking about BILLIONS!

I just don't know how to get all that info into short statements that the average person will understand!

It seems to me that NOW everybody's in charge, therefore NOBODY's in charge! There's no ONE person to go to and say, YOU FAILED, so you're being replaced!!!!

I think we really should take advantage of the complaints the Pubs have about the current Pubs in charge!!!!!

[PhilipShore]

9. Headline: 'Frauds-R-Us'- The Bush Family Saga and Homeland Security

Fraud and Bush’s Homeland Security

Bush and the Real Story behind Homeland Security

[Fovea]

10. I think we can present the case that our military

with its current mission makes us no safer.
We could cut it by %75 and redeploy back to
our shores.

It needs to become a defense dept, not a foreign legion.

That our intelligence agencies have lost
their mission.

That corporate personhood is a disaster.
That a 65% top marginal tax rate is required.
That there never was a 'death tax.'
That capital gains taxes makes lazy money work.

That any money saved from outsourcing should be progressively taxed out of profitability.

That energy companies should be nationalized.


You want a progressive, sustainable America?
This is the way you pay for it.

[cmdrzog]

14. Sounds like a plan

I'd like to see salary capped at some multiplier of the lowest employee's wage added to the list and a tiered national energy pricing, minimal tax on energy needed to heat, cook, get to a job etc.; usage in excess of that taxed heavily, the tax funding alternative energy R&D and energy credit for the poor.

[Fovea]

17. Not to mention

Universal healthcare coverage, and free public education to the Baccalaureate level for any American that can maintain a 2.5 gpa (or technical training for job skills to the same level)

[oneold1-4u]

6. Don't quickly forget

That the republicans who will do and say anything to keep their "seats" are the very ones who have allowed this fiasco to take shape. The congress was created for the purpose of a balance of power, not to allow a regime with dictatorial powers! There is so much "horrible mess" of this government, today, that it is going to take an act of congress to make the changes to clean it up! Don't plan on any republicans to "really change"! Try to take out as many as possible, as soon as possible, no matter if they start "calling a spade a spade"! They have been shoveling this crap down your throat for nearly six years and they will still have a shovel in their hands while their mouths are open to criticize their own creations!

[populistdriven]

7. haha the title of that book is full of crap

"Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

it was Reagan that started backrupting America:

[femrap]

24. Remember 'voo doo' economics under Reagan?

All that 'trickling down' doesn't work...I thought we already proved that under Ronny...but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

These neocons are out to eliminate the middle class! I think that is a message that the Dems should be hollering.

[lsulib]

8. DOn't get to overconfident

we been through this drill before. It dont take much to rally around their "leader" time after time. At times I think this stuff is put out on purpose

[stepnw1f]

11. About F"n Time... The Idiots! (nt)

[cyclezealot]

13. Don't think this a good thing.

There are freepers more agressive than Dubya even. God knows what idiot they might hoist on the country.Thre are fundies so extreme in the Congress, you would think they would not have time for their congressional duties. As a thread yesterday pointed out. Check out article on Sam Brownback in the current Rolling Stone.
The Repugs are chucked full of nutjobs. Grover Norquist is their real leader, if not James Dobson.Why does god condone the poor guy being crushed?

[radfringe]

12. old one - but still relevant

[kurth]

15. Don't let them distance themselves from Bush and get RE-ELECTED!!!

Push comes to shove, they always vote the party line.

EVERY Republican congressman and senator deserves to be sent home this November.

[Wordie]

16. K&R...music to my ears, too!

[Straight Shooter]

18. Suffering from the delusion that it's the bush bashing, not bush himself.

Stick your fingers in your ears and sing la-la-la-la-la as bush destroys everything he touches, and pretend that no one will notice what bush is doing.

Since when is verbal criticism more destructive to a political party than the smash-and-grab actions of that party? Do they really believe people aren't noticing? If so-called conservatives can't get enough of an ethical backbone to vote for Democrats, let's hope they just stay home. Let's also hope the Democrats get enough of an outrage backbone to show up at the polls in numbers which will astound Americans everywhere.

[leesa]

19. This IS the Reagan Legacy...he just took it a little farther. This is

where you goons wanted to go. Don't like it much, huh? This is why we all told you it was a dumb plan!

[Lorien]

34. Amen. It's as if the repugs have collective amnesia when it comes

to Reagan's real legacy; he drove us into record deficits and nearly ruined the economy. If clinton hadn't come along when he did...well, I shiver to think of the mess America would be in (even worse than it is today).

[calimary]

20. Funny enough, that's the ONE thing they've done that's actually good.

"and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

The revered, fabled, storied, gushed-over, hyperinflated, so-called "Reagan Legacy" ABSOLUTELY has to be done away with. THAT is what started us down this long crooked path down into Hell. THAT is where our problems began in earnest - Reagan's rise was the beginning of the end of an American democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people. That started changing it to - of the extremists, by the hypocrits, for the cheapskates.

If bush's ascension to power is what put the stake in the heart of the "Reagan Legacy" of enriching those who already have plenty, at the expense of those who have little or nothing, and forcing OUR brand of "freedom" and "democracy" at gunpoint, and wiping our asses on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, then the little wannabe king will actually have done a service to his country. Amazing but true. THAT is the best thing that could ever happen to and for this country - to overturn, and roll back the monstrous, holy-ass "Reagan Legacy." It belongs buried deep down in the toxic dump of history.

I saw something yesterday that mentioned how bush may wind up ruining the republi-CON majority and the conservative movement, as well as what's left of what we love about our country. AHA! Found it - Paul Craig Roberts - "Who Will Save America?":

"When I saw that the neoconservative response to 9/11 was to turn a war against stateless terrorism into military attacks on Muslim states, I realized that the Bush administration was committing a strategic blunder with open-ended disastrous consequences for the US that, in the end, would destroy Bush, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement."

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02062006.html

That statement is MUSIC to my ears! PLEASE, GOD! Make it so!!!

[mzmolly]

21. They want to be re-elected and are distancing themselves from an

unpopular idiot.

[goforit]

22. LOL!!! And even the most loyal Sen.Talent is now supporting stem cell

Going on their own agendas for their own survival.

LOL!!

[meti57b]

26. eere e p, ereeeeppp, erreeeep ... the sound of people scraping bush bumper

stickers off their cars in the dead of night.

[oxbow]

27. Immigration is the wedge

The issue that splits the coalition in two. This article points that out succinctly. I hope some prominent dems are reading this stuff.

[connecticut yankee]

29. Do I believe my eyes?

Commentator Jonah Goldberg, miffed that Bush has piled up record deficits and boosted the size of government, writes that Bush "is spending money like a pimp with a week to live."

Jonah Goldberg, son of the infamous Lucianne?

[thereismore]

30. They are more concerned about 2006 than the bush*. They are

organizing. Circling the wagons. Are you rooting for a change in the GOP? Are you kidding? You know that's impossible. This article shows that THEY GET IT. They know they are in trouble for November, and THEY ARE ORGANIZING. Not good.

[castiron]

39. that's really true and it's our worst nightmare

they hammer at reform, a tale the conservative masses never tire of believing in, and it's just another Republican in office again. It ain't like people are anxious to switch to Democrats.

[jwirr]

31. Batlett is wrong, this was the plan all along, but raygun did

not have the blind congress that * has.

[Lorien]

35. If Reagan had had a repug house and senate, it would have been

every bit as bad.

[FlemingsGhost]

36. This is not a permanent trend, based on logical deductions

These folks will quickly manufacture another fascist prop to call their Messiah.

[Gelliebeans]

38. run rats run n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

41. As they say

"they eat their own". Let the grand buffet begin (and please pass the salt).

[rucky]

42. "Bashing" always makes it sound like it's unjustified.

but I'll take news like this any way I can get it.

[Javaman]

43. While buying shoes this weekend...

I got into a mild political discussion with the shoe salesman, he seemed like a decent guy. It was odd, because at the start of the conversation, I would have pegged him flat out as a Democrat. From everything he said, he was, but then he mentioned that reagen was his hero. Oy, I said to myself, but I allowed him to go on. And what he said was very interesting.

He basically stated how much he hated the neo-cons and how they are destroying the repuke party. And him as a repuke, it's become tougher and tougher for him to have normal civil conversations with other repukes!

I agreed that the concept of agreeing to disagree has completely vanished from the political landscape at the level of the average person.

He said he didn't vote for moron* because of what he sees as the complete vanishing of the repuke platform.

Just my two cents. Things are changing.